A severe storm struck the Route 66 Festival area in Edwardsville, Ill., on Saturday afternoon, forcing the cancellation of the rest of the event after several tents were blown over and festival-goers ran for cover.
According to the Belleville News-Democrat, the storm came with nasty winds and 1-inch hail.
Witnesses said children were crying as festivalgoers took shelter inside the library at the park. Some tents at the festival were down.
A clean-up of the festival site was under way at 4:30 p.m. Most vendors appeared to be packing up and shutting down, even though the festival was supposed to continue through the night.
The popular car cruise in Edwardsville was set for 6:30 p.m. Downed trees and power outages also were reported.
The Alton Telegraph reports that the storm hit at 3:43 p.m., with winds of 45 to 50 mph.
I’ve seen no reports yet of injuries; more updates will be posted when they happen.
UPDATE: The News-Democrat filed an updated story about the storm and the festival’s cancellation.
The Illinois Motor Tour had just mostly left there. We got the rain up the road in Hamel at Weezy’s.
Felt sorry for the 20 motorcyclers from South Africa that we passed south of Hamel heading for Edwardsville who must have driven right into this storm.
It was wet in Mt. Olive and electricity out all over Litchfield and for awhile at the Carlinville Best Western where we had the Hall of Fame Banquet. Fortunately, they had back up power and there was no problem for the ceremony and meal.