As noted in comments by Mike Marchand, and also by 1LG on her blog, there was an apparent tornado in Hesston, Indiana yesterday, a small town 20-25 miles WNW of South Bend. I say “apparent tornado” because the National Weather Service hasn’t yet confirmed that it actually touched down, but there was definitely a funnel cloud, and it definitely at least got close to the ground, considering it flipped over a police car as the officer inside tracked the storm:
LaPorte County sheriff’s Detective Shayna Mireles, 32, was tracking a tornado about 4 p.m. Thursday when the tornado lifted her squad car and hurled the auto over a fence.
Mireles was taken to LaPorte Hospital, where her injuries were described as not life-threatening.
Mireles was on Fail Road, near County Road 700 North, according to detective Sgt. Roger Bernard, her supervisor. …
She was tracking the tornado when the tornado lifted up her car and tossed it over a fence into a field, he said.
Bernard said there were no tire tracks on the other side of the fence, indicating that the car was airborne.
The car landed on its top, pinning Mireles inside. Emergency crews worked 15 to 20 minutes to extract her from the car.
The officer’s daughter, Betsi Mireles, said her mother suffered cuts and bruises. “She’s lucky she had her seat belt on,†Betsi said. …
The tornado caused many downed trees and power lines long Fail Road, north of U.S. 20.
The storm also caused a power outage in areas of South Bend, including WSBT’s studios, forcing them to broadcast from outdoors using a satellite truck to get the feed out. Heh.
On a more somber note, the wet roads may have contributed to an awful crash on the 90:
A stretch of the Indiana Toll Road where at least 12 people had died since August 2005 claimed eight more lives Thursday when a semitrailer barreled through stopped traffic, crushing several vehicles in a chain-reaction crash.
State police said the driver of the semi never slowed until he struck the vehicles, which had stopped because of a separate crash near a construction site. Two of the cars were crushed beyond recognition - a van carrying six people, five of whom died, and a Jeep Cherokee in which two were killed. The driver of a pickup truck that was knocked off the road also died.
“At this point, we don’t know the reason. He did not slow down,” state police Sgt. Trent Smith said. “It’s one of the worst accidents that we’ve had up here.”
April 27th, 2007 at 3:51:56 pm
Yet another reason why I hate semis…
April 27th, 2007 at 3:59:21 pm
I see the Californian-speak is coming through: calling the crash on I-90 “…on the 90…” instead of just “…on 90…”
April 27th, 2007 at 4:27:05 pm
It’s not “the 90?”
April 27th, 2007 at 5:47:04 pm
We don’t use “the” in the MidWest unless we’re referring to the actual name of the highway.
April 27th, 2007 at 6:20:38 pm
In the northwest we call it “I-90″ or “I-5″ seeing as how its a proper name and all. I suppose you could drop the I as bink says and that would be ok, but i’ve never understood the whole California style of calling it “the 90″ or “the 5″. You don’t say “the Notre Dame” or “the Hollywood” or “the Brendan Loy” except in rare circumstances.
April 27th, 2007 at 7:28:17 pm
Yep, adding “the” to the name of, for example, I-90 seems to be common in the western US as well as some portions of the south. A (former) graduate student was from California and pointed out the difference to me one time.
April 27th, 2007 at 7:46:28 pm
I wouldn’t say its common in the west, just in California. In Washington we definitely do NOT say “the 90″
April 27th, 2007 at 8:20:21 pm
It’s also common around Buffalo to refer to it as the 90, the 198, etc.
April 27th, 2007 at 8:46:35 pm
Huh? In my experience, people in Buffalo don’t refer to highways by their numbers at all, with or without the definite article. It’s always “the Scajaqueda,” “the Youngman,” etc. I’m convinced it’s a plot to make it impossible for outsiders to understand directions from locals. :)
Kinda of like how the signs for [the] 90 here say “Indiana Toll Road” instead of 90… indeed, the local news coverage of yesterday’s accident said it had occurred on the “Indiana Toll Road,” and this carried over to the national news, which caused my dad to think they were talking about some old-time highway, not a major cross-country interstate.
April 27th, 2007 at 9:01:27 pm
(Granted, the 90 goes by a lot of names in different parts of the country: the Massachusetts Turnpike, or Mass. Pike; the New York State Thruway; etc. But this is the only place I can recall seeing a major interstate like the 90 sometimes referred to in signage only by its local name, rather than by both. If I didn’t live around here, and I was trying to find Interstate 90, I wouldn’t expect to need to be on the lookout for signs that say “Indiana Toll Road,” I’d be looking for the familiar red-and-blue Interstate logo with the number 90 on it… but maybe that’s just me.)
April 27th, 2007 at 11:46:38 pm
Look closer…the interstate signs are there too.
April 28th, 2007 at 12:18:46 am
I swear there are at least some signs that have only the “Indiana Toll Road” and not the numbers. I’ll have to look and try to get a picture if I find one. :)
April 28th, 2007 at 10:54:22 am
” If I didn’t live around here”
. . . then chances are you *got* here by way of the Indiana Toll Road, so you’d know exactly where I-90 is.
And you and anon are both right — while there are some signs that point the way simply to the “Indiana Toll Road,” others include the I-80*/I-90 interstate signs as well.
As for how we designate highways — I know there’s a New Jersey Turnpike, but I have no idea what interstate it is. Being generally familiar with the east coast, I’ll guess I-95, but I’m not sure. I also had no idea the Pennsylvania Turnpike was I-70 and I-76 until I drove it (and indeed, beyond Breezewood I don’t know what it is, but I know it goes to Philly). In Detroit, they take “the Lodge” downtown. I think its number is 10 (although I am pretty sure it’s a state number, not an interstate one). And then of course there’s all the Chicago expressways — the Dan Ryan, which I know to be 94 (and sometimes 90 I think), the Stevenson (55?), the Eisenhower (290, maybe?) and at least one other. Point being, there are plenty of places all over the country where major thoroughfares are known more by a name than by a number. The Indiana Toll Road is hardly unique.
(Anecdotal, I know, but not irrelevant.)
And I too, with my midwest upbringing and east coast living experience, have never heard a road referred to by its number preceded with “the.” Actual names, yes — the Lodge, the Dan Ryan, the Beltway, the Dulles Toll Road, etc. But not “the 10,” “the 66,” “the 267,” or anything else. As David sort of pointed out, that’d be like telling someone “I live on the Maple.”
But hey, Californians can (and often do) do their own thing…. :)
* And where is the love for I-80, anyway? :)
April 28th, 2007 at 10:56:06 am
“while there are some signs that point the way simply to the “Indiana Toll Road,†others include the I-80*/I-90 interstate signs as well.”
I forgot the important point here — which is that I have seen the same thing for both the Ohio Turnpike and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Some signs tell you where I-80, I-90, I-70, and/or I-76 are; some tell you where the OH Turnpike or PA Turnpike is; and they don’t all always appear together on the same post. I’ve no idea why it’s done this way, but again, IN is not unique.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:12:40 pm
Actually, David K, as a now-local in the Los Angeles area, when giving directions to locals, we do say “Take the Hollywood to the Ventura to the 405 North; off at Burbank, then north on Sepulveda to Costco on the left” … (that’s the Jeopardy thingie for which the question is “What is the freeway route to the cheap gas in Sherman Oaks area?”) … (grin)
April 30th, 2007 at 8:20:10 pm
Um Alasdair, I specifically said that Claifornian’s refer to their highways using “the”. I pointed out that Washingtonians (and most Oregonians i have met) do not.