VIRDEN, Ill. — By all accounts, Monday, May 1, started as a beautiful morning. Clear skies. Cool. The gusting wind out of the northwest, not uncommon for a central Illinois landscape covered by vast farm fields and little else, was the only sign of what was to come. Around 10:50 a.m., Jim and Pam Dawson were about 30 miles from their home in Hillsboro, heading north on Interstate 55 to a .
Deadly I-55 dust storm: The hellish minutes scores of drivers spent battling a 200-foot wall of farm soil seattletimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from seattletimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Matt Zinchuk was worried. In three decades, his mom rarely missed a piano lesson. And yet, on that Monday evening in May, with students waiting at the family’s Champaign home,