Northwest Herald from Woodstock, Illinois • Page 11

June 24, 2015 Northwest Herald Section Page 3 Coal City again must rebuild Hundreds of Lee homes damaged Confirmed tornadoes Several tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in Northern Illinois on Monday night, according to the National Weather Service. The strongest was in Coal City, where a "high-end" EF3 tornado damaged many buildings. A tornado also touched down in Lee County, categorized as a preliminary EF2. The NWS also confirmed an EF1 tornado in Mendota, a "high-end" EF2 with winds up to 130 miles an hour in Sublette, and an EF1 in Harmon. Tornado hit it in Nov.

2013 as well SHAW MEDIA COAL CITY When Gary Rink and his wife, Diann, emerged from their Coal City basement late Monday night, they knew right away their home had lost its roof. "We come up and looked at the sky and it was raining on our faces," Diann Rink said. The couple's concrete mailbox was busted. Windows were shattered and the garage with cars inside -was smashed with concrete blocks pouring out. The patio was gone and the garage area was laid bare with a fridge and sink visible.

Behind the garage was a large pile of rubble all that was left of the home where Gary and his wife had lived since 2007. For the second time in less than two years, storm-stricken Coal City residents emerged from the wreckage late Monday faced with a familiar tattered scene: A trail National Weather Service in Romeoville. Monday's tornado hit portions of Coal City, Carbon Hill and Braidwood. About three dozen agencies responded to a call for mutual aid Monday night to do an initial check of the area. Five people were taken to local hospitals.

Emergency crews began a secondary search Tuesday morning in the Coal City area. Lt. Nick Doerfler of the Coal City fire district said that search was completed Tuesday with no new people found. "Search and rescue operations area complete, mutual aid has all returned home," Doerfler said Tuesday evening. Gov.

Bruce Rauner, in town to see the damage first, declared Grundy County a disaster area while at a news conference about noon Tuesday at Coal City High School. The governor offered state resources mostly personnel -to affected communities. He said federal aid is unlikely but state officials won't know until the damage is assessed over the next few days. Eric Ginnard eginnardshawmedia Joe Kotemeier walks through the collapsed structure of a pole barn containing farming equipment Tuesday in Coal City. A tornado ripped through Will and Grundy counties on Monday night, but only left minor injuries and no reported fatalities.

of debris left behind by a tornado in the form of destroyed homes, downed power lines and uprooted trees. As the sun rose Tuesday, Coal City residents and officials found the damage to be similar to that of the November 2013 storm. That time Coal City was slightly hit by storms, unlike the neighboring town of Diamond that suffered the brunt of it, Coal City Mayor Terry Halliday said. The tornado that touched down just minutes shy of 10 p.m. Monday in Coal City was a "high-end" EF3 tornado with winds up to 160 miles per hour, the National Weather Service confirmed.

It caused more damage than the storms that passed through a section of the city and neighboring Diamond in 2013; that was categorized as an EF2, according to Ricky Castro, meteorologist for the By CHRISTI WARREN cwarrensaukvalley.com SUBLETTE Hundreds of homes in Woodhaven Lakes, a private campground north of Sublette, are gone, destroyed Monday night when an EF2 tornado ripped through parts of Lee County, officials said. The campground has 6,144 lots, and about 300 properties were occupied when the tornado touched down. No one has been reported missing or dead, and only one person was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, authorities said. As search efforts unfolded through Monday night and early Tuesday morning a search to ensure that no campers were unaccounted for -two people were found trapped inside a trailer, but neither was injured, and both were removed without incident. Officials don't know exactly how many people were on the grounds when the tornado struck just after 8 p.m.

Monday, nor do they know the exact number of homes damaged, but Sublette Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Schultz said Tuesday that he estimates about one-third of the properties sustained damage. The most destruction happened in sections 9, 13, and 14, where National Weather Service analysts confirmed the touchdown of an EF2 tornado, with wind speeds averaging 130 mph. More than 80 search-and-rescue workers streamed in from Chicago on Tuesday to help first responders survey the damage and make sure all the resort's residents were accounted for. Officials said residents got about 20 to 30 minutes of advance warning before the storm hit, which meant that most were able to get safely to sturdy structures, mostly comfort stations, throughout the campground. Jeff Sus has been coming to Woodhaven Lakes since he was a kid in the '80s, and he's never experienced anything like what he saw Monday.

He and his wife, Andrea, 30, of Batavia, have been staying at their cabin in section 21 since early May. Cellphone reception in Woodhaven Lakes is bad, so the only way the Suses could monitor the storm was to watch it out their front door. And then, the sirens went off. They and their 2-year-old German shepherd, Zeke, made their way to a comfort station, where they hunkered down with about 50 other people as the tornado raged through the campground. On a normal day, the above-ground comfort station, one of 14 at Woodhaven, is a bathhouse and restroom for guests.

Monday night, it served as a bunker. wont Non-Surgical spinal disc decompression may reduce or even eliminate your pain. If you are suffering with chronic or severe pain despite other treatments that have failed, there is hope with the safe, pain free spinal disc decompression available in McHenry. Spinal disc decompression is a Non-Surgical, Drug-Free procedure for: 'voi- Dut'st T)r Fast. Frier P-z vic 0 Numbness and tingling Let Us in arms or li E7 Bulging Disc 0 Pinched Nerves E'Degenerative Disc 0" Facet Syndrome B'Herniated Disc 0" Spinal Stenosis H'Sciatica PrePostsurgical Patients 0 Radiculopathy Neck and Lower Back Pain II Help You! 95 $49 EXAM, X-RAYS FIRST TREATMENT Save $10.00 Off (X-Rays if needed) 11 Your JUNE Cannot be used combined with any other offer.

Expires 7115. Service Call Elm Street Chiropractic 815-344-1025 4921 W. Elm Rt. 120, McHenry 815-923-4050 Dr. Kenneth Reiser, D.C.

Dr. Andrew HarriSDn, D.C. Medicare Medicaid patients may not qualify for this offer www.elmstreetchiropractic.com www.mchenryspinaldecompression.com START YOURS AT MCC At MCC, our focus is on learning, and studeni success is our goal. It's our mission and the heart of everything we do. So whether students come here to Start a new chapter in their liveSj finish a dream that got sidetracked or try something new, everyone gains the benefit of quatity instruction and infinite possibilities.

Res I yf it 's a st ry th at never ets I Did You MCC was named among Aspen Institute's, lop 150 community colleges in the nation, and CNN Money College Measures reported that MCC is ranked 4" in the state for student success rates and affordability. 'DiinrjcJ iii ihr number 'jf uLuUcnlj wht LLTnpLLLLn a jTitdTc 'ji diiqi Or driifi'i re- i Foui-vir ii iNtuCICi i McHenryy County College VI ri; onlro nd sec g.ac.V "ow no fypk'ii CC UJ-f 1 'j. www.mchenry.eduexcellence.