Bad weather is expected throughout the Midwest today and in Galesburg, dangerous conditions moved through the area early this morning.
Around 4:10 a.m. emergency personnel sounded tornado sirens as a precaution due to high winds. That’s according to Knox County Emergency Management Coordinator Tom Simkins.
Simkins tells Galesburg Morning News on WGIL that shortly before 4 a.m. the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Knox County.
“Included in that was 60 to 70 mph winds,” Simkins says. “We have a policy that if there are 70 mph winds we blow the siren. We had a report from a weather spotter of high winds in the area and he had seen a tree go over. Plus, I think the big thing for me, it’s 3:30 a.m. in the morning, people are sleeping and you can’t see what’s going on. It was kind of right on the borderline. I thought ‘OK, I’m going to air on the side of blowing the sirens.”’
Though no tornadoes touched down, Simkins says tornadic activity took place near Gerlaw in Warren County, similar to weather patterns seen when an EF-2 tornado damaged more than 100 buildings in Cameron last July.
No major damages have been reported to this point. There were reports of roof damage to multiple buildings in Warren County.
