{"id":7757,"date":"2025-05-10T03:31:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T03:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=7757"},"modified":"2025-05-10T03:31:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T03:31:49","slug":"putnam-county-blacked-out-by-overnight-storms-la-salle-bureau-counties-also-see-scattered-damage-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=7757","title":{"rendered":"Putnam County blacked out by overnight storms; La Salle, Bureau counties also see scattered damage – Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"


A snapped power pole toppled over along Illinois Route 71near the intersection of Holmes Road on Saturday, March 15, 2025 near Hennepin. High winds from Friday’s storm caused some power outages across the Illinois Valley. <\/span>(Scott Anderson)
Putnam County<\/a> was hit hard with straight-line winds Friday night into Saturday morning, leaving hundreds without power. There were, however, no injuries.
Most of the Illinois Valley was, and remains, under a wind advisory issued. Late Friday, the area was hit with storms that drenched the region into the wee hours Saturday.
The National Weather Service reported no evidence of any tornado, but the straight-line winds pounded Putnam County. At 7 a.m. Saturday, Corn Belt Energy reported 380 outages there, affecting three-quarters of its Putnam County customers. Ameren Illinois reported 847 customers without power near Hennepin.
Putnam County Sheriff Josh Boedigheimer reported numerous trees and limbs down, resulting in multiple power line and pole issues. Route 71 was closed from Holmes Road to Florid Road due to downed lines and poles.
\u201cIt was a mess,\u201d Boedigheimer said. \u201cIt was a quick, powerful storm we had in the area.\u201d
Was that the result of straight line winds or something worse? The National Weather Service couldn\u2019t say. The Quad Cities office, which was collecting data from many Iowa and Illinois counties, reported Saturday they had no preliminary information on why the outages and tree damage occurred.
City and county officials had been braced for the possibility of wind damage, but most of those interviewed Saturday were heaving sighs of relief. Though Streator and the La Salle County panhandle were listed in a zone showing an elevated risk of storm damage, Streator Police Chief John Franklin reported no downed trees, flooding or outages.
\u201cWe had some heavy rain,\u201d Franklin allowed, \u201cbut it wasn\u2019t enough to disrupt things.\u201d
La Salle<\/a> and Bureau<\/a> counties had fewer outages. Ameren Illinois reported at 7 a.m. nearly 400 without power mostly in Ottawa<\/a> but also in Marseilles<\/a> and Spring Valley<\/a>. Corn Belt reported just 1% without power in those counties.
\u201cWe had a few spots where wires were down and that caused some outages,\u201d Spring Valley Police Chief Adam Curran said. \u201cOne spot in particular was the Spring Valley curves where a tree and a power line were down which caused us to temporarily close off the road until the scene could be cleared.\u201d
Ottawa Police Chief Mike Cheatham said he woke to a report of minimal damage \u2013 save for downed light pole, power line and a commercial awning \u2013\u201cbut nothing significant as predicted.\u201d Ameren was working on a downed line at Woodward Memorial and Clinton.
\u201cIt looks like we missed the brunt of the storm that went south of us,\u201d Cheatham said.
Utica<\/a> Fire Chief Ben Brown reported no damage within village limits though there were reports of poles and lines down in a field near the border of Waltham and Ophir townships. La Salle<\/a> Fire Chief Jerry Janick said his first-responders were not dispatched to any storm-related scenes and he had no damage reports. Peru<\/a> Fire Chief Jeff King said the city \u201cfared well\u201d during the overnight storms.
To hear one meteorologist tell it, Illinois Valley residents were fortunate this weather event happened at the tail end of winter.
Todd Kluber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville said winds were clocked at 67 mph at the Peru airport. That would surely have caused more damage when the trees are in full bloom.
\u201cOne major difference this time of year as opposed to the summer is the leaves are not on the trees yet,\u201d Kluber explained, \u201cso we don\u2019t see as much tree damage as when we do when there\u2019s full leaf cover.\u201d
La Salle-Peru appeared to fall within a sweet spot, insofar as more significant damage was reported to points south and north.
Kluber said there more pronounced damage was reported in eastern DeKalb<\/a> and Kane<\/a> counties, though the NWS had not yet ascertained whether the damage was from straight-line winds or tornadoes.
A snapped power poles lay in the ditch as electric crews respond along Route 71 near the intersection of Holmes Road on Saturday, March 15, 2025 near Hennepin. High winds from Friday’s storm caused some power outages across the Illinois Valley. <\/span>(Scott Anderson)<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2023 Shaw Local News Network
Copyright \u00a9 2023 Shaw Local News Network<\/p>\n

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A snapped power pole toppled over along Illinois Route 71near the intersection of Holmes Road on Saturday, March 15, 2025 near Hennepin. High winds from Friday’s storm caused some power outages across the Illinois Valley. (Scott Anderson)Putnam County was hit hard with straight-line winds Friday night into Saturday morning, leaving hundreds without power. There were, however, no injuries.Most of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t