A decade later: Pekinites look back on deadly 2013 tornado in central Illinois

It's been a little more than ten years since a tornado ripped through the northwest section of Pekin.

According to the National Weather Service, the tornado crossed the Illinois River from Peoria County at 10:53 a.m. on Nov. 17. In the one minute that it tracked through Pekin before lifting about two miles northeast of the city, the storm caused major damage to 179 homes and six businesses.

An additional 182 houses suffered minor roof damage, three apartment buildings lost their roof, a power substation had minor damage, and hundreds of cars were damaged. There were no fatalities in Pekin related to the tornado, and 10 people were injured.

More: Meteorologist explains November 2013 tornado outbreak

Pekin City Manager John Dossey, working with the Hanover Park Police Department at the time, did not have a “boots on the ground” perspective of the 2013 tornado.

However, he provided an eye in the sky, getting aerial photographs of the storm. He was returning to Chicago from a Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies conference in North Carolina and flew over the storm. He asserted that the tornado’s impact extended well beyond the greater Peoria area.

“Tornado alerts were going and many chiefs on the plane from the conference were very concerned with reports we were receiving,” Dossey said. “I landed at O’Hare during a tornado warning.

A chief deputy with the Tazewell County Sherriff Department at the time, Tazewell County Sherriff Jeffrey Lower was both a first responder and a homeowner whose house sustained damage in the tornado.

Busy with first responder duties in Washington, where the tornado killed three people and injured another 125, he was unaware of the damage to his home on Willow Street in Pekin until well after it happened.

“I didn't realize for almost a week that I had had part of my roof torn off because I'd been going to Washington for the entire week,” Lower said.

In addition to generating high winds and flying debris, the tornado downed the majority of the power lines in the affected area.

The charged, downed power lines posed a severe threat to both homeowners and first responders according to Pekin Police Chief Seth Ranney, who was a sergeant with the Pekin Police Department at the time.

“Responding personnel assumed once the severity of the storm passed, citizens would be coming out of their residences to assess the damage and we knew there were countless blocks of houses with power lines laying in the front yards,” Ranney said.  “Command staff directed responding personnel on those streets to try and make contact with citizens first to try and mitigate any threats from the power lines.”

Ranney added that the 2013 tornado was the only incident during his time as a Pekin first responder where the police and fire departments activated the “all call” system to request all police and fire personnel provide assistance at the scene.

“It worked extremely well that day,” he said. “We had a flood of first responders, well over 100, respond to the incident.”

Looking out for one another

Most of the heavy damage in Pekin from the tornado occurred to residences north of Sheridan Road, with damage to homes extending to the northern city limits. Selena Cleer’s home was one of the residences that sustained heavy damage.

“We were at church when the tornado hit our house,” Cleer said. "The roof was torn off the house, the garage was destroyed, and one car totaled. Most of the trees were knocked over.”

While some of their neighbors chose to not rebuild their damaged homes, the Cleers went to work on repairs, which were completed by July 2014. In the aftermath of a disaster like the 2013 tornado, community members often step up as second responders, and Cleer recalled the help she received from that quarter as being prompt and substantial.

“We had some old friends from my childhood call and help us with food and gift cards,” she said. “Fred Young of Pekin Township hall helped us, and (Federal Emergency Management Agency Tornado Relief funds) helped us a lot with everyday things. Gene and Ingrid Smith also helped us with gifts of money and food to get us through until the insurance company was able to get us money when we were getting into a rental home.”

Ranney expressed pride in the way the community responded in the tornado’s aftermath, saying that he witnessed “countless instances” of Pekinites helping other Pekinites.

“Citizens from around the city showed up with chainsaws and pickup trucks and started helping clear roads and driveways once the areas were deemed safe by Ameren” Ranney said.

“Another positive that day was the outpouring of support by first responders from around the State of Illinois.  Police officers from hours away responded to help provide security for damaged residences and businesses in both Pekin and Washington.”

This article originally appeared on Pekin Daily Times: Second response: Pekinites stepped up for community after 2013 tornado