BELLEVILLE, Ill. – Dartina Cathion is an avid walker who exercises around the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows building in Belleville, Illinois. She stopped by on Tuesday to see the toppled radio tower that was damaged during Saturday’s storm.
“The tower is bent like folded up like a hanger,” Cathion said. “OMG. That means that was some real strong winds because these are some very big trees, and tower was tall.”
High winds are responsible for the damage done to the radio tower at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. The tower is broken and dangling at the midway point.
The National Weather Service said an EF1 tornado with 98 miles per hour winds, a maximum width of 200 yards, and on the ground for three miles west of Belleville struck Saturday at 7:03 p.m.
Cathion lives nearby and was home at the time.
“But the whole time we’re moving, and all you hear is woo woo woo and the wind, it was horrific,” Cathion said.
The radio tower and building at the base were once home to FM radio station WMRY 101.1. The Radio Information Service, now known as Mind’s Eye Radio, is another organization that uses the tower to provide information to the blind and visually impaired.
The new Shrine Director, Father Salvador “Chava” Gonzalez, said the building is relatively undamaged.
While the building is closed, Mind’s Eye service is unaffected by the damage, translating the visual world of print through live-streaming.
They are assessing their next steps for the tower.
