May 22--MOUNT OLIVE -- Two people were blown 17 feet across a room and slammed into two doors that had been sucked shut, a teenager was surrounded by shattering glass, fearing for her life, and even the fire and police departments were damaged as an EF2 tornado touched down about 10 p.m. Monday.
"I was lying down, and the whole house started shaking. Picture frames were blown off the wall; a window blew out, and there was shattered glass all around. I was really scared. I thought I was going to die," said Breanna Bywater, 17, of the 400 block of East Main Street.
She said she, her mother and father and seven siblings tried to take cover in the basement of the home, but they smelled natural gas and were told by emergency dispatchers to take cover in a car. They tried to take cover in a car, but the windows were blown out. They entered another vehicle, but the tires were flat.
She and her parents, Gail and Blake Bywater, live in a 19th century home near the older central business district.
At least a dozen buildings in a relatively small area were destroyed or badly damaged.
"It got really dark. A rear window blew out. I was blown against a door," said Lisa Warner, who lives in an apartment over a resale shop at 218 E. Main St.
Her husband, Steve Warner, also was blown from near a window into a door that had just slammed shut.
"I had a mouthful of dirt," he said.
The Warners said they first thought about their daughter, who was on the first floor, looking at a computer. She saw the storm coming and took cover in a bathroom. Her parents said that if she had not been on the computer, she might have been injured or killed.
The storm took the roof off the building, a former boarding house for coal miners.
"All the doors were sucked shut," Lisa Warner said.
Steve Warner said the couple operates a resale shop in the former boarding house, and Steve Warner operates Troy Glass in Troy.
They said they have no insurance on the building, and they said Tuesday afternoon that they are unsure where they are going to go and what they are going to do.
"We have no insurance; we are struggling," Steve Warner said.
The couple expressed doubts about whether their home and business building can be saved.
Both Warners said they are grateful there were no injuries in the Mount Olive storm. They said they feel lucky compared with the people affected by Monday's giant tornado in Oklahoma.
The storm blew the roof off the Dollar General Store, said an employee, Blake Jewell.
"I was at the Dollar General. The roof was ripped off like a sardine can," Jewell said.
He said he heard somebody screaming, and it was a young female co-worker. He went to help her and used a flashlight to navigate through the mess left in the store.
"She was hysterical," he said.
Meanwhile, the roof and part of the upper front wall of the Main Street apartment where Jewell lived was ripped open.
"My apartment was destroyed," he said, noting that he did not bother to re-enter the place. He said he went to a friend's house to get dry clothing.
Along with scoop shovels and dump trucks picking up tons of debris, primarily on Main Street, there were crews from J.F. Electric using bucket trucks to make repairs. Workers from AT&T also were on hand, making repairs.
A truck was bringing in a new power pole to a spot near the Warners' building Monday afternoon. The original one was buried under rubble and had to be taken down as the rubble was removed.
A spokesman for the National Weather Service said it had confirmed the storm was an EF2 tornado -- a designation on the Enhanced Fujita scale indicating wind speeds between 111 and 135 mph -- that was "short-lived." Witnesses reported the tornado on the ground for about one minute.
As of Tuesday morning, some 800 people still were out of power in Staunton, Ameren Illinois reported. Another 600-plus were out in Mount Olive. Between 2 and 3 inches of rain fell.
Part of the roof of the Mount Olive Police Department was blown off. Their radio antenna, like many antennae in the community, was bent in half. The officers had no radio communications or computers. They were using cellphones and communicating in person.
Police Chief Ryan Dugger said he and other emergency responders called in help from the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System.
The state agency brought in a big mobile command post that will serve the department's communications needs for the foreseeable future, Dugger said.
He said the police station's roof was damaged severely.
"We had a structural engineer inspect it, and the walls are bowed out," he said.
He said he was not sure whether the building can be salvaged.
Mel Bick was standing across Main Street from her tavern, Mel's Place, at 208 E. Main St.
"The whole second floor is gone," she said.
She said she had gone home about 10 p.m., and her bartender called to report there was no business, so she closed up and went home. No one was hurt; the fate of the building is uncertain.
"We just re-did the inside, and we were ready to go to work on the outside," Bick said. "It's just hard to believe."
The storm blew the overhead doors off the fire station and destroyed a storage shed in the back. The radio antenna was bent in half.
Ken Fenwick lives next to the fire station.
"A tornado dropped out of the sky. It sounded just like a train," said Fenwick, of 805 W. Main, as he waited for a claims adjuster to visit his home.
A large hole was blown in the roof, and everything inside got wet.
A carport fell on the car of Whitney Hughes, who also lives at 805 W. Main.
"I'm mad. I just put it under there to protect it," she said.
Bill's IGA store in Staunton was damaged severely, with much of its roof blown off.
Owner Bill Miller said a steel roof was ripped off and landed on an adjacent street. Luckily, the building has two roofs, so repairs to the remaining roof were enough to keep the store open.
The storm knocked out power and the computers, so there was no way to take credit or debit card purchases.
Big cranes from Mullins Salvage had the debris cleaned up by Tuesday afternoon.
Copyright 2013 - The Telegraph, Alton, Ill.
