WHITE HALL, Ill. — Thousands of Ameren Illinois customers are still without power after a massive storm produced what are believed to be straight-line winds across the state.
Karen Waller was born in White Hall, Illinois, but she moved to California for 30 years for one reason.
"Because of tornadoes,” Waller said. “We got wiped out. Our chicken pen was wiped out. I was only two. My parents were like, 'we're out of here.'"
She recently moved back to the area, but while she was out feeding the neighborhood strays she shot this video of a massive storm approaching.
"We were just watching it come,” Waller said. “No sirens even went off."
Though there was no tornado warning in her area of Greene County the storm was strong enough to turn over a semi on Interstate 57, damage homes in Decatur and flatten a cornfield near New Berlin.
"I'm driving right through it and the trees are cracking,” Waller said. “The trees are coming down. The power lines were coming down, and I thought I was going to get electrocuted."
Realizing she couldn't outrun the storm and get to safety she sought shelter inside a beer cooler at a gas station on the south side of White Hall.
"Everybody was running in there,” Waller said. “It was like everybody leaving a stadium or a concert. We were running into Casey's and there was no power there either because all of the power went out."
According to Ameren, there are still 91,000 customers without power across Illinois.
Waller said she's just thankful the storm wasn't worse.
"All afternoon I'm like I can't believe I'm alive,” Waller said.
To view the Ameren Illinois outage map or to report an outage, click here.