May 21--MOUNT OLIVE --Winds that ripped through Mount Olive's Main Street on Monday night destroyed four commercial buildings in the downtown business district and damaged about 10 other properties, authorities say.
No injuries were reported. The storm hit at about 10:35 p.m. Monday.
James W. Pitchford, coordinator for the Macoupin County Emergency Management Agency, said the National Weather Service will be sending someone to survey the damage at about 10:30 a.m. today.
That survey team will determine if the storm was a tornado, but Pitchford said he doesn't believe it was a twister. Based on the damage he saw at daybreak today, Pitchford said he thinks it was straight-line winds that moved from west to east.
The damaged buildings include a home that is about 150 years old that lost its roof, and two apartment buildings. Behind the brand new fire department, the roof and walls are missing from a steel- and wood-frame shed that was being used to store equipment.
"Downtown, some two-story brick buildings, the facades were ripped off them," Pitchford said.
The business district is on Route 138, which becomes Main Street in Mount Olive. The city has a population of about 2,100.
Pitchford said the first sign of winds coming at Mount Olive was when a roof was blown off an IGA store in Staunton on Monday night, shortly before the damage to Mount Olive's business district. As of 7 a.m., more than 800 Ameren customers in Macoupin County were without power.
Officials with the National Weather Service office in St. Louis said they plan to send a survey team to Mount Olive and Hannibal, Mo., the only other spot in their coverage area that might have been hit by a tornado during Monday night's storms.
In Hannibal, the storm snapped several large trees snapped, destroyed two machine sheds near Highway MM and damaged some buildings downtown. The storms across eastern Missouri and southern Illinois were marked by hail and high winds.
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