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CENTRAL ILLINOIS (WCIA) — “She’s a little bit stressed about it,” Chase Leman said.
Chase Leman’s wife isn’t the only one stressed by the events of the day. He was alarmed to get a call from Ameren saying power was out in his area. A downed tree in his front yard caused hundreds of people in fisher to lose power for part of the day.
“Somebody told me that the school had to close because they didn’t have power,” Leman said.
Fisher Schools dismissed early because of the problem. Back at Leman’s home, his main concern?
“I was worried about the house getting cold or you know the fridge going out, spoil the food and stuff,” Leman said.
Luckily, power was restored by this afternoon and he told WCIA friends and family will be in town celebrating the Super Bowl and can help clean up the mess this weekend.
The winds weren’t just an issue in Fisher. Over in Rantoul, the wind knocked down part of the town’s new construction project. Emergency Manager Justin Bouse says people are excited about the development.
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“Having something like that, maybe set the construction timeline back a few weeks or even months is something we don’t want to happen and we obviously want this development for the sales tax, things like that here in the village,” Bouse said.
Bouse says he will visit the site this week to assess the extent of the damage. He will also meet with the Champaign County Emergency Management agency to figure out the next steps.
“Meeting with them, seeing how far back this sets them and their timeline and just working and moving forward with them to ensure it gets built in a timely manner,” Bouse said.
He also says weather like this is sometimes unprecedented.
“There’s times when you go out there, there’s a little bit of a breeze and there’s time you go out there and it’s really gusty, so it’s hard to plan for that when those things kind of happen,” Bouse said.
Bouse wants to make sure the community is always ready.
“It’s about educating the public and making sure they have access to weather alerts when these type of events are going to occur,” Bouse said.
