When
placing caches for this event I wanted to have some that were
Educational, Historical and of course Interesting and I think this
one fits the bill!
On August
20, 2009 a tornado ripped through Chesterton area, knocking out
power to approximately 9,000 homes, taking down entire trees,
ripping off roofs, blowing out windows and in one case completely
destroying an 8-unit apartment complex.
This
tornado hit around 7:32 pm CDT on Wednesday, August 20, 2009 was
rated an EF2 on the Enhanced
Fujita scale Winds reached a maximum of 120 mph.
The
tornado was on the ground covering a path about 4 miles long, and
reached a maximum path width of 60 yards.
And
amazingly no weather related injuries or deaths were reported to
the area hospitals.
I placed
this cache near an area where the tornado went. When you turn onto
the road which contains the cache drive slowly, maybe even stop.
Look to your right you will see small bushes are uprooted by this
beast. Look further across the highways and you will see homes with
blue tarps on their roofs and many, many trees with their tops
broken off if not completely torn from the ground.
Look to
your left you will see more broken trees, more blue
roofs.
But while
looking to your left look down the hill to the cornfield below, you
will see the field of corn completely flattened. If you look at the
corn stalks laying there you can imagine how the wind twisted and
turned because you can see the pattern in the corn.
I realize
as time goes on the aftermath of this great tornado will fade with
time, but nonetheless will be remembered forever for those that
literally rode the storm out and was blessed to tell of the great
event.
NOTE:
The road
you need to find this cache is only accessible from the north bound
lanes of Highway 49 and you need to watch carefully for it as it is
NOT marked.
This
cache was placed in conjunction
with Indiana Lake Michigan Coast Week,
September 5-13th, 2009.
There is much to offer everyone during this time.
See the schedule of planned events:
