The best thing that Kim Kuipers could say about last week’s storm damage was that no person or animal was injured.

A storm known as a derecho – a long-lived, large area of thunderstorms with damaging winds, according to meteorologist Kevin Birk at the National Weather Service in Romeoville – is what roared through and smacked Kuipers Family Farm in Maple Park, on the border of Kane and DeKalb counties, last the afternoon of June 10.

Kim Kuipers said the storm blast ripped the roof off the barn, mangled it and dumped it in pieces in the apple orchard. The winds also peeled back the roof from the main store and business office.

“Staff was here, but no one was hurt,” she said. “We were very lucky.”

A team from Zenz Buildings in DeKalb, which had built the two-story barn and one-story store and office building, came to cover the barn with a tarp because a second round of storms was expected, Kuipers said.

“They tarped it and nailed all the tarps down,” she said, adding Kuipers’ own crew, including her husband and two sons, “flipped the roof back on the office.”

Now they’re waiting for a new steel roof to arrive and be installed.

“We’re still working on an estimate of damage,” she said.

The storm also blew over some attractions and knocked over eight big trees near their home on the northeast side of the farm property, she said.

“None of us were here,” Kuipers said. “I pulled out on [Illinois Route] 38 and headed east. I could see the storm clouds. [Her son] Joe was behind me in his truck. I call him, ‘Should we tell your dad we are leaving? If something happens to us, call 1-800-Sell-Our-Farm.’”

There were two employees at the store who during the storm went downstairs to the lower level farmhouse kitchen, where they were safe, she said.

“This is a little detour,” she said of the storm damage. “We will be back repairing and working on projects for the fall to be on track to open. We will have a new orchard shop entrance.”

As to this type of storm’s unpredictability, Kuipers said there is a giant windmill still standing in front of the store with not a nick in it.

The family posted information on its Facebook page about the damage and the fact that no one – and no animals were hurt.

Joe Kuipers posted a Bible verse there from Jeremiah 17:7-8: “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Joe Kuipers said the family has “always really liked the verse with the agricultural tie-in to the apple orchard. A tree planted by a stream has deep roots and sustains itself even in drought. ... It’s just a reminder to us put our trust in God and God provides for us exactly what we need. He actually gives us more than we can handle, so we can put our trust in him.”

The farm also has a cow, a horse, goats, chickens and ducks and a pen with fallow deer. Joe Kuipers said one whole side of the deer pen was smashed, but none of the animals suffered injury.

“We’re really really grateful for that,” he said. “We can always repair stuff.”

The farm, which celebrating its 25th year, is closed until fall harvest and still plans to reopen on schedule on Aug. 22.