It might be difficult to believe, but the devastating March 10 tornado has a silver lining.

“It was cool to see the help. To see neighbors helping,” Kankakee Public Works employee Adam Rivard said. “To see people trying to get neighborhoods back together.”

Rivard said he remembered Kankakee employees devoting long days to assisting neighbors.

Although not everyone in the city’s 26-member public works crew devoted their shifts to helping devastated Aroma Township neighborhoods, Kankakee employees were a constant presence.

Crews helped clear streets of fallen trees and debris and hauled away truckload after truckload of the maze of broken and twisted trees.

Kankakee also provided a place to haul the estimated 2,400 tons a day of wood waste to the city’s 19-acre rubbish site. That location is the former site of the Starlite Drive-in Theater on the eastern edge of Kankakee along East Court Street.

An estimated 200 loads to 250 loads loads of rubbish such as downed trees and bushes rolled into the site from Kankakee, Aroma and Kankakee county municipal trucks. Networks of volunteers helped the community climb out of the destruction from March 10’s EF-3 tornado that ravaged portions of south Kankakee and Aroma.

Kankakee Environmental Services Operations Manager Frank Hasik IV said that a near-constant rotation of 36 public works trucks hauled rubbish to the Kankakee disposal location. He said that the debris has not overwhelmed the available space.

Lead operations manager James Lopez and Hasik both said they received many phone calls and texts from thankful Aroma Township residents.

‘Whatever is needed’

Kankakee Mayor Chris Curtis said in the weeks after the disaster that helping Aroma Park was always in the playbook.

“When tragedy or difficulties strike a community, that’s when you find out what your community is made of,” Curtis said. “We are the largest community in the county. We have the largest staff.”

Five minutes after the storm moved on from Aroma Park, Curtis called Lopez and Hasik.

Where was the city’s crew needed?

Soon thereafter, 16 public works members assembled and learned of the situation. They would be aiding Aroma Township from about 7 to 11 p.m. March 10. Another public works shift would follow the next morning.

Everyone was on board. Some employees even suffered property damage in that area.

“We have the ability. Some of our (daily) work was put on the back burner, but a community was in need.” Curtis said. “Who are we if we can’t help our neighbor? Whatever is needed, we will help.”

Lasting effects on crew

Kankakee was not the only department responding. The city simply had the most people there. Hasik said suburban departments were eager to assist, but only so many loads of debris could be hauled and dumped at a time.

What crew members experienced in those early hours and early days of cleanup would remain with them for a long time.

“It was like, ‘Wow!’ ” said public works employee Tre Spears of Bourbonnais. “I had never seen anything like this before.”

Spears said it was shocking to see the destruction from his city dump truck: “You instantly felt it. Lives were turned upside down. It’s eye-opening. It’s scary.”

For three weeks after the tornado, city crews exerted about 1,800 hours of manpower with the help of fifteen pieces of heavy equipment.

Scott Graham public works employee has lived in Aroma Township for four years. What he experienced that night still shakes him. By the following Monday, he was back to work, and the damage to his home mostly was cosmetic.

Lopez couldn’t resist the opportunity to needle his crew member, if only for a moment.

“Did you bring a doctor’s note?” Lopez asked Graham with a laugh when he returned to work. Graham only chuckled.

“I’m proud that our guys are out there working,” Lopez said as his smile sobered. “People need to be proud of our DPW staff. I’m so proud. I am proud to say what they were doing out there.”