While Aroma Township residents continue to sort through heavily damaged homes, seeking as many valuables as they can unearth, they were far from the only people affected by the March 10 tornado and hailstorm.

Along Kankakee’s South Schuyler Avenue – mainly a business district – owners and operators have been frantically working to return to some semblance of business operation.

In other terms, it could simply be called picking up the pieces.

Some will have more success than others. Some were able to return to serving customers by late last week, and some early this week. Others, however, will find the process much longer – if ever.

Steve and Nancy Tholen, of Limestone, have been the driving force behind the successful Tholens’ Landscape & Garden Center, 31 Seedorf School Road, facing South Schuyler, for some 50 years.

After the shock of last week’s devastating tornado subsided – after the approximately 15-acre business site in unincorporated Kankakee County was walloped by the twister – the Tholens vowed to rebuild.

“We have a business we have to keep going,” said Steve. “We are going to keep going.”

Almost exactly 50 years from the March 1, 1976, opening of the Tholen’s long-established location in south Kankakee, the family will do it all again, with the dramatic assist from their second business site in Bourbonnais.

Other locations in this business district were not as fortunate. The Fairview Courts Motel, 2546-2664 S. Schuyler, appears to be a total loss.

Other 4th Ward sites in and around the area have been greatly impacted, from RiverStone Parkway to River Road.

Many properties along this stretch of South Schuyler are not located within the city’s corporate boundaries. RiverStone Parkway is part of Kankakee.

Significant damage

Kankakee Mayor Chris Curtis has talked to nearly every business owner in this area, whether or not they are technically within the city.

He noted most said they will ultimately be fine, but he said the destruction is heartbreaking.

“The damage is significant. But it could have been so much worse,” he said. He said if the tornado had traveled only a quarter mile north or south of its path, the damage could have been overwhelming.

Curtis could not even offer what type of damage was sustained in this corridor.

At some locations, such as the Aldi grocery store, the refrigerated and freezer sections were in the process of being restocked late last week as crews pushed toward a reopening.

A short distance east, the Walmart Supercenter, Tractor Supply Company and Speedway gas station reopened at the start of business on Thursday.

The 110-room Wyndham Garden Hotel in Kankakee, just west of Walmart, was doing business as well.

Also in unincorporated Kankakee County, Shoup Manufacturing, the agricultural implement manufacturer, sustained damage to its manufacturing site and is not yet back in operation.

Electrical service to the area had been out from about 6:30 p.m. March 10, about the time the tornado struck South Schuyler, to approximately 4:30 p.m Thursday when ComEd crews finished all the electrical line work.

Steve and Nancy Tholen said as much business as possible is being shifted to their Bourbonnais store. The plan is to fully service all customers with their planting and landscape needs when spring fully kicks in – which is normally when the calendar hits April 15.

Vow to ‘keep going’

The family has been overwhelmed with the support they have received from the community.

“So many people have been asking how to support us,” noted Cindy Tholen, Steve and Nancy’s daughter. “... We are going to take care of our customers. It will just be different this year.”

What the fate will be for the actual store is yet unknown for the Tholen family. The tornado may have caused enough structural damage that the store may need to be rebuilt. That determination, however, is a topic for the insurance adjuster.

The mission at this point is to recover from the shock of the storm and to get their 15 employees focused on the job at hand, and that is to be ready for the rapidly approaching spring season – one of the company’s busiest times of year.

But the shock of the tornado will remain long past this spring’s landscape season.

Asked for his reaction when he came upon his business following the tornado, Steve simple said “wow.”

“It was unbelievable,” he said.

Their son, Chris, was seated at Bourbonnais’ Monical’s Pizza when the storm arrived.

His mobile phone began exploding.

“I was like ‘Oh my God!’” he explained. He quickly exited the restaurant and headed to Kankakee.

“I had no idea what to expect,” he said. “You just don’t ever expect something like this.”

What the future will bring to the Kankakee site is certainly unknown. For the Tholens’, like so many of their South Schuyler neighbors, life – and business – will continue.

Not unlike the familiar expression that when life throws you lemons, you need to make lemonade, the South Kankakee businesses will work to pick up the pieces and move forward.

“We will keep going,” Steve vowed. “This facility doesn’t look the same right now, but we are still functioning.”

Nancy put it in the simplest of terms: “We’re going to get it fixed. We’re going to get through it.”