By John Gregory/Illinois Radio Network
COAL CITY – The governor calls it a “miracle” that no one was killed by Monday’s tornadoes.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has declared Lee and Grundy Counties disaster areas, and saw the damage in Coal City for himself this morning. While many buildings in the town suffered significant damage, Rauner isn’t optimistic about the area receiving federal aid.
“Unfortunately, the federal government has very strict guidelines on the cost estimates of the damage,” Rauner said. “The tornado we dealt with a number of weeks back in Fairdale, etc., was even more widespread in the damage than this storm front, and we did not qualify for federal aid then, so preliminarily, I would say it’s very unlikely we would in this case.”
Rauner says his top priority in response to the storm is searching the Woodhaven Lakes campground, located south of Sublette in Lee County. He’s ordered rescue teams to the campground, which can attract up to 30,000 visitors on busy weekends, to make sure no campers there may be trapped or injured as a result of the storm. Preliminary findings by the National Weather Service indicate an EF-2 tornado, indicating wind speed of up to 135 miles per hour, hit the Woodhaven Lakes area.
The Woodhaven Lakes Facebook page says one person was taken to a hospital with a head injury, and several others suffered were treated for minor injuries. Emergency crews had to help 4 people get out of trailers damaged by fallen trees, no severe injuries were reported in those cases.
Coal City Mayor Terry Halliday is asking volunteers and those who want to assist in cleanup efforts to stay away from the area for now. He says the best way to help is to donate through the Community Fund of Grundy County at cfgrundycounty.com.
