Jerome, Illinois 2006 Tornado - Alberta Lane

Photo: Jerome, Illinois Tornado Aftermath - Alberta & Park

Pictured above is one of my favorite homes in Jerome. Until recently this house was home to a most wonderful family who recently moved to the east coast. We Miss you!



Photo: Jerome, Illinois Tornado Aftermath - Alberta Lane

This car was crushed, but a new one has replaced it. It always pays to keep up your insurance.



Photo: Jerome, Illinois Tornado Aftermath - Car Crushed

It took days before this automobile was freed, and hauled off to car heaven.


Alberta Lane In Jerome - It's 1950 All Over Again!

Within the Village of Jerome exist a little lane called Alberta. The lane is lined with post World War II bungalows, all of similar design, and size. An older resident of the village explained to me that a farmer had owned the land, and had all the homes built at about the same time.

The homes along Alberta Lane are small, and the front yards are large enough to park a car upon - which no one ever does.
Most of the people who live on Alberta Lane are retirees.

Few front yards along Alberta Lane have trees, but one of the few that did wasn't spared from the effects of the tornado. Actually, it was a car that paid the greatest price as the photographs above illustrate. An automobile is parked in its little driveway, and has been crushed under the weight of a fallen tree which was struck down by the tornado of March 12, 2006.

The photograph (top) of the farm house at the corner of Park Street, and Alberta Lane has one of the oldest trees in the village in its front yard. The tree was damaged from the tornado. Something odd about the tree is that a second tree is actually living within the first tree.

A few years ago a group of tree enthusiast came to study this tree, and another tree in the same yard which was even older than the one pictured. Sadly, it was not possible to save the older tree from disease, and it was cut down to protect the many children who played in the front yard.

I hope that somehow the tree pictured above manages to hang on. I doubt the new owners are aware of this trees history, and will see it only as an eyesore.