Washington, Ill., mayor surveys the damage: ‘Our heart goes out to them’

Nov. 19--WASHINGTON, Ill. _ Washington Mayor Gary Manier got his first look at the magnitude of the damage to the community during a helicopter tour just after sunrise Monday morning.

"Unfortunately, as the sun got brighter, you could see more of the devastation," he said.

After surveying parts of the devastated community Sunday after the storm, Manier said even he didn't realize how extensive the carnage was until he saw it all at once.

"This looks bad, but from the air it gives you a whole different perspective," he said. "One, on how wide it is and also the distance it goes. It's from the beginning of the city limits to clear outside the city limits. It's pretty sad."

Manier looked down on the homes of his constituents and friends, the devastation extending within two blocks of his own home, knowing the road to recovery would be a long one for the city of Washington.

"Our heart goes out to them. It kind of makes you wonder why not yours and someone else's sometimes," Manier said. "I'm kind of at a loss for words to even think about families who spent their life getting their homes just the way they wanted it and now they have nothing."

Bill Phelps, 69, lived in his home in Woodridge Trace for 38 years when his son called him Sunday with unexpected news.

"'Dad,' he said, 'You've got some damage to your house.' He said, 'You guys should come home,'" Phelps recalled Monday.

"There was nothing left. I didn't even know it was my drive, hardly. I almost passed it."

Every landmark _ the pine trees lining his driveway to his home of nearly 40 years, the neighborhood he's watched grow, his home full of a lifetime of possessions _ was gone.

"This is what we've got, right here _ clothes and that's it," he said, tugging at his coat.

Along with the home, two outbuildings where Phelps practiced his passion of fixing up old cars were obliterated in the tornado. Monday he pointed across the street to the resting place of his '41 Dodge and '38 Chevy to the east and two Mustangs in the mounds of debris to the west.

The storm ravaged areas were locked down by authorities. No one, not even residents, were let in or out for most of the day, a frustrating restriction for many residents.

"They say if you get out, you're done. You can't get back in," Phelps said. "So there's not much you can do. There's not much cell service; my cell doesn't work most of the time. For now we just have to wait and see."

Without having spoken with his insurance provider, or having the time to process the extent of the damage, Phelps was unsure what's to come as cleanup slowly started along Cummings Lane.

"I don't even know where to begin, what to even think about to do," he said. "What can you do?"

Mike McManis and about 70 other Kroger employees and customers went through the worst of the storm in a cellphone-lit produce cooler at the back of the store.

"It's not really a true storm shelter, but it's the safest place we had," said McManis, a department head at the Kroger store in Washington's Cherry Tree Shopping Center. "We got everybody in the cooler, closed the doors and waited it out."

The store, about three blocks west of the hard-hit Devonshire Estates subdivision, became a makeshift shelter until the official emergency shelters were identified, said John Elliott, public relations manager for Kroger's district headquarters in Indiana.

The Washington store was operating with a skeleton crew late Monday. Though the store is scheduled to reopen at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Ellliott wasn't sure if enough employees would be able to get through the barricades to open the doors. A significant number of employees' homes were also damaged or demolished, Elliott said.

Area residents, many of them from Georgetown Apartments, also took shelter at the store after the winds subsided Sunday. Employees passed out blankets, food, and water and donated items such as aspirin, diapers and water to rescue workers.

"People were just coming in, sitting down, having something to eat to get out of the rain," McManis said.

He is still not sure if the turbulent wind he saw is the tornado that hit Devonshire Estates.

"You could see stuff up in the air, swirling around, but it wasn't the big dark monster coming at you," he said. "It was strange."

Victims sorted through debris Monday, finding their own personal possessions and, sometimes, the odds and ends picked up throughout the area and dumped without abandon by the tornado throughout the state of Illinois.

"It's just bizarre things that have been in our yard," Kathy Schlack said Monday. "Toilets, sinks, all kinds of electronics, somebody's gas grill just imploded and was in a million pieces in our backyard."

Schlack's friends and family worked together Monday raking the yard, gathering rubble and boarding up the broken windows knowing the damage was minimal compared to other homes in the neighborhood.

"I just feel badly for all my neighbors. I am so blessed and fortunate. They have nothing," she said. "It's unbelievable. ... I have no words. I'm just sad."

Rob Buisse's home on Kensington Drive has two staircases.

One leads to the basement, dark without electricity Monday where Buisse rode out Sunday's violent storm huddled with his wife and three sons. The other, to an empty space after the entire second story of his home, was torn away the day before as a tornado devastated his neighborhood.

"When I came upstairs and there was no upstairs to come up to, I went down and told my kids and wife that our house is gone," Buisse said as he fought back tears Monday afternoon.

The family of five regrouped Monday, salvaging what possessions they could pile into the damaged vehicle that survived the storm he said lasted only a few seconds.

"The hard part yesterday was, let's get out here. There's nothing we can do here. We got to my sister's, sat there and decided we at least need to try to get back and see if we can save some stuff from the kids' childhoods," Buisse said.

"The neighbors, everybody's been great. People find stuff for other people. We take it to them. We find pictures and clothes and we've been walking around."

Buisse and his family and neighbors struggled to salvage what they could and to leave behind what was ruined.

"It's kind of hard to leave. It sounds like they're not going to let you back in here, or it's going to be months and months and months before we get back here, maybe even a year," he said. "I don't know how long it takes to rebuild a whole town."

Officials from park districts across the state have been calling Washington Park District Executive Director Doug Damery, offering whatever help they can for the tornado-ravaged city.

Most don't know that Damery's home at 1434 Mackenzie St. in the Trails Edge subdivision was destroyed Sunday by the twister.

So were two family cars and a work vehicle.

Thankfully, the family is unhurt and safe and staying with friends.

Damery, his wife, their two children and dog huddled in a closed basement closet after Damery looked outside and saw the tornado heading right at their home.

He described it as a "vacuum cleaner in the sky, suctioning everything in its path."

Within a few seconds, Damery said, his home was gone. When the family emerged from the closet about a minute after the tornado passed, rain was falling at their feet.

Christmas decorations that were being stored in the closet were spared, but not much else.

This was going to be a big week for Jim Tallman, director of bands at Washington Community High School for 21 years.

Performances of "Shrek: the Musical," the school's annual musical production, are scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the Caterpillar Performing Arts Center at Five Points Washington.

Tallman is director of the 20-piece pit orchestra, and he'll be playing keyboards during the musical.

But school officials weren't certain Monday if "Shrek" will go on as planned. Not after Sunday's tornado.

Among the hundreds of homes destroyed were Tallman's home at 408 Gillman Ave., in the Trails Edge subdivision.

Tallman said he was getting ready to go to the high school to do some work when the tornado headed toward his home.

He took cover in the basement. After the tornado passed, neighbors lifted him out from among the debris.

He tried to help his neighbors, but they told him he needed to get a cut on his head checked out. He went to Proctor Hospital in Peoria, where the cut was stitched up.

Tallman said band directors from high schools and colleges have been calling him, offering their help and musical instruments for students who no longer have them.

He also said the Western Illinois University marching band is collecting money to help the Washington Community High School marching band.

Tallman's wife, Jennifer Tallman, a teacher at John L. Hensey School in District 50 in Washington, had gone to school to work just before the tornado hit so she wasn't home.

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Laura Nightengale can be reached at 686-3181 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @lauranight. Pam Adams can be reached at 686-3245 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @padamspam. Steve Stein contributed to this report. He can be reached at 686-3114 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @SpartanSteve.

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