Okay, you hardy Sun Citians, now you have another weather story to tell your grandchildren.
Since Sun City opened in April, 1999, there have been two significant weather events that the Sun Day remembers well. On February 6, 2012, Old Man Winter dumped 22 inches of snow on us, shutting down activities for a few days and forcing residents to spend a couple of weeks digging out.
Then about 4:45 p.m. on September 25 of this year, residents found out what 70 miles per hour wind gusts can do.
Perhaps the most notable tree in Deicke Park, which stands atop a hill near Stingray Bay, was taken down by microburst winds reaching 70 mph on the evening of September 25. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
In the space of about 12 minutes, a very fast-moving storm front poured several inches of rain on a wide area in Chicago and suburban areas. The downtown Huntley area sustained most of the serious damage, but Sun City escaped largely unscathed. .
“Minimal damage occurred in a couple of APN (attached product neighborhood) units from tree limbs, said Deanna Loughran, executive director. “The fence adjacent to the high school (near Neighborhoods 27 and 28) was significantly damaged.”
The Village of Huntley sent out an E-blast to its village/Sun City network. “It appears that there were straigt-line winds with gusts up to 70 mph,” the report said. The most significant issues were in the downtown and adjacent area, but we saw damage village-wide. (As of the following day), the village said, “We initially received information about eight homes with significant damage and one home that has been deemed uninhabitable.”
In Sun City, the storm mostly caused inconvenience. Patio furniture was scattered all over yards or sent to neighboring properties, and one homeowner in N10 had a patio table with an umbrella overturned and damaged. Yards everywhere were littered with small parts of tree limbs. Another resident in N10 took down a back yard tree after the winds split the main trunk in half.
For all you detail-oriented historians out there, both of these events in 2012 and this year occurred on a Tuesday.
Even Whisper Creek Golf Course, which has hundreds of trees along its fairways and greens, survived intact.
“We lost a pine tree near hole number eight, but that’s about it,” a spokesperson said. “A couple of trees came down on the Prairie Lodge parking lot near Jameson’s Restaurant,” he added.
Huntley officials reported on September 26 that at least 700 homes lost power initially. That number rose, however, in the following days. The village scheduled an additional debris collection day on October 2 to help residents clean up.
