Winds of Fury, Illinois F5 Multi-cache

This cache has been archived.

Markwell: Thanks to all who have hunted this cache.

As cool as the virtual is, and as nice as it would be to leave this up, the houses have been renumbered and the cost of gas is deterring people from doing this multi-leg virtual.

Stephen P. Hunt was my wife's biology teacher and track coach, and was my graduating class's sponsor. I personally knew 5 people that lost their lives in the tornado, and countless others that were injured or had property damage.

Some have said that I glorified these stories, but they were indeed actual stories of friends of mine. Location One has had issues with the house numbers being faded or unavailable. Location Two is still fine and dandy. Location Three has had a house renumbering.

Please feel free to visit the memorial of this tornado at N 41° 36.065 W 088° 12.241

More
Hidden : 2/25/2002
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Related Web Page

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:

This is a Multi-Stage Virtual Cache. Special thanks to Team CacheCows of Wisconsin for their inspiration with Wisconsin - F5. Be sure to bring a calculator.

Tuesday, August 28, 1990 3:30 p.m.

The day before school was to have started. Most of the youth of the town were at home trying to enjoy that last day of summer. It was a sweltering hot day, after a long bout of 90°+ days.

3:30

An F5 Tornado hit the town of Plainfield. Winds reach speeds between 261-318 mph at F5.

“Microburst”
“Supercell”
Whatever the definition, the devastation was wide spread.

This multi-cache is placed in memoriam of that day's events. It will take you to four locations, two of which are personal property, but it is not necessary to actually go on to the property to gather the necessary information. The other two locations are public areas. Preserved with this cache are some of the personal stories of this event. Some are miraculous, some are heartrending, all are moving. Names have been changed for privacy reasons, but they are true stories.
Locations One and Three are Private Residences.
The information you need to gather is available from driving by the houses and NOT GETTING OUT OF THE CAR. The people that lived in these houses during the disaster no longer live there and probably wouldn't appreciate a visit on their lawns. Please respect their privacy and gather the evident information from the location and move on.

Follow Up: The Golf Ball on the Tee
What is that thing on top of the Plainfield Water Tower? A couple of years after the tornado, doplar radar came in to use by meteorologists in predicting tornados. WBBM Ch2 in Chicago placed a doplar radar on top of the water tower for aiding in the prediction of tornados in the area. At the time of the 1990 tornado, there was no warning system sufficient to predict the cell that devastated a town.

You can read more about the storm here.

Location One

Home From Work


Private Residence – It is not necessary to leave your car.
Lucy was working as a secretary about 20 miles from her home. At 3:45, she was listening to a radio report that a tornado had touched down in Plainfield, where Lucy lived. She told her bosses that she was leaving and hopped into her car. Her husband Steve was a traveling businessman and was out of town for the week. Since it was a sunny, hot day, Lucy had put the sheets on the line to dry. Driving home became increasingly difficult, as she was finally met by a police checkpoint where they checked her license and verified her address. When she rounded the corner, she saw that her sheets were flapping in the wind, but she could see little else from the subdivision. Pulling in to her driveway, she noticed some damage to her house: some soffets were buckled and her bedroom window was not to be seen. Going in to the house, she saw that the storm had neatly removed the window and laid it - unbroken - on her bed. She went back out the door and was met with the devastation that was her neighborhood. Over 2/3 of the 100+ homes were completely leveled. Wheatland Plains was the first populated area to have touchdown of the F5. The devastation was complete.
Location one is the one time residence of Lucy and Steve, now living in Tennessee. There is a carn of rocks in the front northwest yard of the house, with a sequence of five numbers clearly visible from the north. Do not get out of the car as the rocks are on personal property. It should be sufficient to drive slowly and read the rocks from the public road.
Take the five digit number on the rocks and divide by 354.054054054
The resulting number will be the minutes portion of the latitude for N41°
ABCDE ÷ 354.054054054 = VW.XYZ --> N41° VW.XYZ
Take the five digit number on the rocks and divide by 1057.85880785
The resulting number will be the minutes portion of the Longitude of W088°
ABCDE ÷ 1057.85880785 = VW.XYZ --> W088° VW.XYZ
Location Two

A Narrow Escape


August 28 was the day before school was to start for the fall. One day later and the children would have been waiting for the buses or walking home when the tornado hit. This facility was utterly destroyed. For the years of rebuilding, the school classrooms were held in mobile units.
The other story surrounding the building was that one person remembers being caught in their pickup during the tornado. They don't remember much about the storm except the sound of a freight train, and they distinctly remember being hoisted above the top of this building.
In the cornerstone of the new building is the name of the senior local leader to the facility at the time. His name is vaguely like 50% the name of a rock group from the 1980s. Take the first three letters of his first name as it appears on the cornerstone. Change those letters into numbers with the simple code A=1, B=2, C=3, etc.
Take the three digit number and divide by 10.4901
The resulting number will be the minutes of Latitude for N41°
ABC ÷ 10.4901 = VW.XYZ --> N41° VW.XYZ
Take the three digit number and divide by 30.558229
The resulting number will be the minutes of Longitude for W088°
ABC ÷ 30.558229 = VW.XYZ --> W088° VW.XYZ
Location Three

A Miracle


Location Three is a Private Residence. Please do not get out of the car to gather information. It is readily visible from the public street.
Sue and Tim had just adopted their precious little girl. Sue was home for the day with her 4 month old baby and another little girl. At 3:30 p.m., Sue's house disappeared. She was lying in rubble unable to move and had no point of reference to know where she was. As the rescuers came by to help, Sue cried out that the babies were lost in the rubble. Firemen finally listened for crying and heard it coming from beneath a collapsed wall. Minutes later the wall was raised to find that the two babies - laying side by side - had been pinned between the studs of the walls, amrs touching the studs on either side. By some miracle, they had escaped all injury as the wall collapsed around them, leaving them only with light abrasions.
Sue and Tim and their daughter now live in Southern Illinois due to a job change, but their rebuilt house is at the coordiantes for this location. It is the second from the intersection to the west.
Take the three digit house number and divide by 19.738848
The resulting number will be the minutes of Latitude beyond N41°
ABC ÷ 19.738848 = VW.XYZ --> N41° VW.XYZ
Take the three digit house number found just to the right of the door and divide by 58.184195
The resulting number will be the minutes of Longitude beyond W088°
ABC ÷ 58.184195 = VW.XYZ --> W088° VW.XYZ
Location Four

In Memoriam


Second Column, Fifth Row. Tall man with a long gate and a large mustache. I could not do justice to the story, so here's a link to a story written by the then principal of Plainfield High School.

E-Mail me the name of this wonderful person to log as a find.

GONIL		 Team Markwell

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



Advertising with Us

Inventory

There are no Trackables in this cache.

View past Trackables

What are Trackable Items?

Bookmark Lists

View all 5 bookmark lists...