Houses damaged in Green Garden Township after strong storm comes through

GREEN GARDEN TOWNSHIP — A small tornado late Friday afternoon damaged eight homes outside of the Green Garden Country Club Golf Course.

The damage was relatively small. But roof shingles were torn off houses both west and east of the golf course, and the doors were reported blown out at one house, officials said.

Some trees and one utility pole were knocked down in the tornado that was on the ground for about a mile starting at about 4:50 p.m. as storms blew into the area.

Linda and Dennis Tuller may have sustained the worst damage with a section of roof torn off by the tornado.

By the time the threat of severe weather had passed, the Tullers had gray and blue tarps tightly secured over the missing sections of roof.

That's the bright side of being one of the only homes in the neighborhood that suffered storm damage, Linda Tuller said. Your neighbors are free to help.

“Everyone helped. They all came with ladders and tarps,” Tuller said.

Tuller said some of her guests saw a funnel cloud in the sky to the west before they sought shelter in the basement.

A text alert from the National Weather Service on her cellphone notified Tuller of the tornado warning.

“Of course, I had to go outside to look,” she said. “Then my phone alerted me again. I thought, 'All right, I should probably get to the basement.'”

Harold Damron, director of the Will County Emergency Management Agency, said the storm started near Center Road near the Green Garden Country Club Golf Course, then traveled east-northeast about a mile before it dissipated. One power line pole along Center Road, near the Tullers' home, was reported down.

Five homes west of the golf course in the area of Center Road and Golfview Drive were damaged, Damron said. Another three homes east of the golf course near Manhattan-Monee Road and Bordeaux were damaged.

The tornado ran parallel to Manhattan-Monee Road, Damron said.

The National Weather Service in Romeoville said Friday afternoon it had confirmed that a tornado touched down.

"There were several citizen reports of funnel clouds," Kevin Donofrio, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Saturday.

"The damage has been largely limited to shingles blown off roofs," Donofrio said. "There was a house where there was a report of the doors being blown out."

• Herald-News reporters Bob Okon and Vikaas Shanker contributed to this report.