Residents begin to clean up after tornado rips through suburban Woodridge

Sandra Baar, 65, of Dixon, helps clear out her sister’s house on Janes Avenue near Evergreen Lane in Woodridge after a tornado ripped through the western suburbs overnight. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

The tornado traveled about 3 miles through Woodridge, ripping off roofs, uprooting trees and tearing down power lines.

As chainsaws growled and bulldozers crunched over splintered tree limbs, Kris Florczak eyed the meager pile of possessions she’d managed to save — a stack of family photographs, her wedding ring, a ceramic figurine of the Virgin Mary.

“Oh my God, it survived!” the 70-year-old widow cried out as her sister handed her a hand-made wooden creche.

Florczak’s surprise wasn’t unwarranted, given that daylight poured into her kitchen from where a roof had once been. Chunks of brick wall littered her garden and all that remained of her side windows was a twisted wooden frame with bits of glass jutting from it like shark teeth.

“Right now, I’m just glad I’m alive, the dogs are OK and family is here,” said Florczak, who somehow managed to survive a direct hit when a tornado ripped through Woodridge late Sunday night.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Kris Florczak, 70, salvages what she can from her home on Janes Avenue near Evergreen Lane in Woodridge.

The tornado touched down about 11:10 p.m. near Route 53 and 75th Street in Woodridge, according to the National Weather Service. The twister, measuring about three blocks wide, traveled some 3 miles from west to east across the village, village officials said during a news briefing Monday. Mayor Gina Cunningham said she’s lived in the village since 1967 and was unaware of another tornado touching down in that time.

“During that path, there was a lot of destruction, mostly of homes and some multifamily dwellings,” said Woodridge Police Chief Brian Cunningham.

A total of 100 structures were damaged “significantly,” village officials said. Three people were taken to area hospitals, although officials had no information about specific injuries.

Florczak had known a storm was on the way Sunday night — she just didn’t know how bad.

She received a text from her nephew about 10:45 p.m. He said it was going to be no ordinary storm. Some 15 minutes later, she was in her downstairs bathroom with her rescue dogs, Eeyore and Payson.

“God protect me in here,” she prayed.

She heard glass shattering, metal twisting and rain lashing her home. And even though the twister tore off the roof and caved in her front door, she remained unharmed in her bathroom. By 11:20 p.m., it was all over. Firefighters had to cut a hole in her garage door so that she could escape, she said.

As her sister, Sandra Baar, handed her items from within the shattered remains of her home Monday, Florczak said: “I’m too stunned right now. I needed a new roof. There are things that needed to be done in the kitchen.”

Mark Kasper looked out at the devastation in his backyard and chuckled at the sliver of fence that remained standing — a section he’d propped up temporarily with a two-by-four plank. Inside the home he shares with his wife, Jamie Kasper, soggy pink roof insulation dangled down through a gaping hole in the living room ceiling. The power was still out Monday morning, and Jamie Kasper wandered through her darkened home with a lamp strapped to her head.

“We definitely had a guardian angel looking over us,” Jamie Kasper, 29, said.

The Kaspers don’t have a basement. As the tornado approached, they ran to their bathroom because it doesn’t have any windows.

“Subconsciously, over the years, I’ve always kept that in mind as an emergency hiding spot, but I never thought I’d have to use it,” Mark Kasper said.

He described a “very scary quiet” before the tornado blasted through.

“Within a few moments, we heard the wind pick up,” he said. “We ran for cover in our bathroom. I’m talking moments from when we closed the bathroom door — windows exploded like a bomb went off. The house shook.”

The Kaspers huddled on their knees in the bathroom. He said the worst part was the smell of leaking gas.

“From there, it was a blur. I remember pulling trees off my Jeep to get away from that,” he said.

Mark Kasper, who said he has insurance, was waiting for a chainsaw to arrive Monday morning so that he could begin cutting up the huge branches littering his yard.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Jamie and Mark Kasper survey the damage to their home in Woodridge after a tornado ripped through the western suburbs overnight.

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