Forreston hit by severe winds

Monday’s storm hit so fast that Mike Boomgarden didn’t even have time to grab his raincoat.

The Forreston Police Chief and approximately 30 other first responders jumped into action for a severe wind event that hit the area, doing most of its damage in Forreston, devastating a neighborhood of mobile homes and sending five residents to the hospital.

There were no fatalities. The village sustained tree and wire damage to 48 blocks and 13 blocks had structural damage to buildings.

"It's basically total devastation,” Forreston Fire Department Chief Mark Daws said. “It's totally gone. There were a few houses that got damage through there. As far as the trailer park, they're all basically gone. I've never seen anything like this. I've been on the fire district for 39 years. This is the worst I've seen."

Village President Mark Metzger made a disaster declaration Monday afternoon and said shelter center had been established at the Leaf River Valley complex for affected residents. The village estimates 50-100 residents have been displaced or “affected the most.”

The storm, which had winds over 100 miles per hour, struck the county around 2:15 p.m. Local law enforcement shut down all roads to Forreston afterward to give first responders space.

ComEd and Nicor were still working Monday evening to restore power and gas to the community. Over 8,000 county residents were without power at one time Monday.

"We had the most significant damage here in Forreston,” Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle said. “But we did sustain damage all the way from Forreston to rural Rochelle. It went the 42 miles across the county and the wind did a significant amount of damage to trees and power lines everywhere else.”

The Sheriff’s Office deployed extra deputies to patrol and help out in Forreston. Deputies were still responding to blocked roads and downed power lines three hours after the storm.

Immediately following the storm, a search was done of the south mobile home park in Forreston to account for residents.

"Pretty much everyone was out,” Daws said. “There were a few unaccounted for but they later came. We are going to return and do a secondary search again. Right now we think we have everyone accounted for but we'll be doing another one."

Daws said the severe storm warning came through his department’s paging system and there was awareness ahead of time.

Trisheena Sturtz had come home to check on her cats and the storm hit five minutes later. Her friend Kurtis Jacobs directed her to get into the bathroom and he saw a tree come down by their trailer.

“Then after that happened he said we needed to help people,” Sturtz said. “My ex lives down the road and we had to dig them out of the trailer. They were OK. We've found two of our three cats."

Amy Houston manages the BP gas station on Illinois 26 in Forreston near the mobile home park. The winds tore the heating and cooling unit off the roof of the building. That left a hole in the roof. There was a gas leak as well.

Houston’s car was also damaged when the wind blew a road closed sign, and the 300-pound man that was holding it, into her car.

“It got dark and really windy and the trees were flying this way and things hit my vehicle,” Houston said. “It was really fast. But the wind lasted for a while. Our home wasn't affected. Just garbage cans blown over.“

The Forreston Township building also sustained heavy damage and several empty semi-trailers were pushed into a corner lot with one being turned onto its side.

The east wall of a cement block building collapsed and fell on a nearby Moring Disposal semi-tractor.

Chain saws could be heard all through town late afternoon as residents started removing fallen trees and branches.