A windy May morning becomes 'Like the Walking Dead,' a look back on the I-55 dust storm

The drive to St. Louis from Springfield takes about 90 minutes on a relatively straight path with farmland spanning both sides of the highway. That often mundane commute came to a deadly standstill on a windy May morning.

Clear blue skies were above travelers for over a two-mile stretch of Interstate 55 between Divernon and Farmersville, but conditions were wildly different on the ground. A dense brown cloud had moved in quickly carried by winds topping 45 mph, limiting visibility, and giving few drivers time to hit the brakes.

Winds of such magnitude are rare for the region and, with farmers tilling or planting in unseasonably dry fields, conditions were ripe for a dust storm. When all had cleared, eight people died in multiple car crashes and dozens of others were injured.

More: Eighth person dies as a result of May 1 crash along Interstate 55

A combination of forces: 40 Illinois State Police troopers, additional ambulances from Decatur and St. Louis, and hundreds of volunteer first responders rushed to the chaos. A total of 30 victims were taken to HSHS hospitals, including HSHS St. John's, spokeswoman Jennifer Snopko previously told The State Journal-Register.

Kevin Schott, Montgomery County EMA director, said the scene required coordination of resources and to keep emotions in check. Communal outreach came from local schools offering goggles to first responders while restaurants and grocery stores provided free meals and drinks.

Without the helping hand, Schott said the already challenging task of tending to the injured and clearing out others stuck in the major pileup would have been nearly impossible.

"It would have been difficult to handle in good weather," he said recently. "And we practice, we train, we're ready, for an event like this, but not in almost zero visibility for the entire duration of the event."

'Like the Walking Dead'

Reports from the Illinois Department of Transportation detailing a major crash near milepost 76 in Montgomery County came in just before 11 a.m. on May 1.

Diveron Fire Department Fire Chief Randy Rhodes was one of the first to witness the carnage. The 45-year DFD veteran spotted three entangled semi-trucks and several other crashed cars behind them.

Fearing for the worse, he approached the second semi that had slammed into the back of another big rig.

"And as we're walking up, there's a gentleman walking up to me and I'm like, 'Well, who's ever up there is dead'," Rhodes said. "And he goes, 'Well, that's me.'"

The truck driver at the last moment had jumped over to the passenger side, averting a head-on collision.

"Somebody was looking out for him," said Rhodes of the driver.

The length of the incident required law enforcement to establish two command posts, one to the south in Montgomery County and the other on the southern tip of Sangamon County. Vehicles that could be escorted out used the Auburn Travel Center in Auburn as a reunification spot.

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The northern post was tended in part by Chatham Fire Department assistant fire chief Joe Bolletta. His responsibility that day was checking on those in their cars, and determining whether they needed any medical attention.

Bolletta said many he encountered were outside their vehicles, walking in a state of confusion.

"The best way to describe it was like The Walking Dead," Bolletta, a 20-year firefighter, said. "It was almost zombie-like in some ways because (of) the sensory overload. You couldn't see, you had dust in your eyes, you couldn't breathe."

ISP identified the victims as Joseph Bates, 73, and Donna Bates, 71, both of Crystal Lake; Earl LeGrand, 64, of Florissant, Mo.; Michael Zinchuk, 55, and Amy Zinchuk, 54, both of Champaign; Shirley Harper, 88, of Franklin, Wisc., Ruth Rau, 81, of Sorento and Otto Medina-Salazar, 58, of Carthage, Mo.

Further complicating the matter were the shoddy at-best communications said Dan Hough, Montgomery County EMA deputy director. He was one of the earlier arrivals at the scene, when some cars unaware of the carnage ahead and would crash before seeing the line of stopped cars. Several vehicles also caught on fire.

The amount of dust in the air incapacitated him.

"We didn't know what was going on in their end until things started to clear," Hough said, facilitating operations at the southern post.

When conditions finally started to clear, it was after 8 p.m., meaning some had been on-scene for nine hours. Both sides of the highway would remain closed by ISP until Tuesday morning and then closed again later that day out of concern of further strong winds coming through the area.

The incident, several first responders said, also spoke to the understaffing issue plaguing many volunteer fire departments throughout the state.

In years past, classes as large as 800 candidates would take a required test at the Bank of Springfield Center to become a firefighter. Schott said that number has dwindled below 200 in recent classes.

Chatham FD consists of volunteer and paid firefighters, Bolletta said, but the struggle in bringing in new staff remains an issue.

"We struggle and not only do we struggle on the volunteer side, the paid side," he said. "People don't want to be firefighters."

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers did pass legislation this spring that would send $500 tax credits to volunteer firefighters working at least nine months in a year receiving less than $5,000 in annual compensation for their work. Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, was a co-sponsor of the bill signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in June.

Lessons learned

A common refrain among officials following the dust storm was just how infrequent these weather events occur. The last dust storm to hit central Illinois happened in 2017, causing the shut down eastbound Interstate 72 at the Morgan-Sangamon county line and eastbound Illinois 104 at Auburn. One death was reported.

Sheng Wang, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences professor, however, said dust storms are occurring at a higher rate throughout the Midwest.

Wang is the lead investigator for a project studying dust storms, joined by researchers from Cornell University and Texas A&M University. Receiving a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the study will employ computer modeling and artificial intelligence to measure the factors that contributed to the incident.

Gaining a better sense of climate patterns, farming practices, and extreme weather, Wang said will reveal what steps can be taken.

"We're trying to understand more and try to also think about what will be the potential mitigation strategy," he said in an interview.

Potential ideas being studied so far are adopting more cover crops in farmlands, which both increase the soil fertility and reduce soil erosion. The Illinois Department of Agriculture is operating a premium discount program to farmers that plant cover crops, up to $5 per acre.

The study, which began in October, carries through September of next year with plans to meet with farmers and government officials regarding policy recommendations.

Contact Patrick M. Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: A look back on 2023: Deadly I-55 dust storm leaves scarred memories