Damage Photos from Edwardsville, IL Tornado
April 13, 1998

The most serious damage was at the Floor Show store on Center Grove Road west of IL route 159. The west wall and the western 20 feet of the roof and south wall were entirely blown away.

Just to the east, the west half of the roof of an auto body shop was lifted off and much of it ended up in trees east of the building. Here is a photo of the damage to both of these buildings.

About 1/4 mile to the east, some of the debris from these buildings ended up in another tree along Goshen Rd., which is the continuation of Center Grove Rd. east of route 159.

A little farther east, most of the roof of the Edwardsville Moose lodge was blown off. In this photo, much of the roof is seen on the lawn. A good bit of it also ended up in the parking lot. Seven air conditioning units at the Moose lodge were also destroyed.

Next door east to the Moose lodge is a Kinder Care day care center. It suffered roof damage, and its school bell tower was lifted off the entry roof, landing in the parking lot. In this photo it can be seen on the ground just left of the entrance if you look closely. Several of the vans lost windows due to wind or flying debris. Note the police lines; the day care was closed the day after the tornado.

I also took some pictures 1.5 to 2 miles further east along the damage path of the tornado, which was rated F1 based on a National Weather Service damage survey. This farm, located about 1.5 miles east of 159 on Goshen Rd., lost the roof of an outbuilding. Part of it landed in trees NE and N. of the building; one piece was carried a quarter mile to the NE. Half a mile further east, this house lost part of its roof. This house is over 2.5 miles east of the rist damage I saw, and only about 1/2 mile west of I-55.