Magda Vasquez and her daughter Shirley Woodruff sat on their front porch in Gage Park Monday afternoon watching as volunteers and city officials broke down branches and packed them into large brown paper bags.
Earlier that day, branches and entire trees blocked Homan Avenue near 53rd Street and blocked some residents, including Vasquez and Woodruff, inside their homes.
Volunteers from My Block My Hood My City pick up tree debris in the Gage Park neighborhood after a strong storm system passed through the Chicago area the previous evening, on June 21, 2021 in Chicago. Earlier in the day workers with the city's Streets and Sanitation department removed fallen tree debris that was blocking the street. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Authorities said at least eight people were injured and at least 225 structures were damaged, many severely, from a tornado that tore through Naperville, Woodridge and Darien late Sunday. Meteorologists said the damage was consistent with an EF-3 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale, meaning it had wind speeds of 136 to 165 mph.
The National Weather Service on its website said, “there were also other areas of rotation and some with damage occurring and these may also have been tornadoes,” adding that more information is expected in coming days.
Vasquez and Woodruff had spent some of the day cleaning their yard. A tree landed across their porch, breaking a window, and the wind from the storm Sunday night sent a glass patio table flying and shattered it, Woodruff said.
“We felt like the house moved, and I heard noises, I heard thunder, things falling,” Vasquez said in Spanish. “I thought something inside the house had fallen and when I came (out) here I noticed it was the tree that had fallen across our yard.”
It took the storm mere seconds to cause that much damage, Vasquez said. On Monday afternoon, when she was able to go outside, she noticed cracks along the concrete base of the home that weren’t there before. It was as if the storm tried to take her home, she said.
“It was a really hard moment, really difficult because I thought it was the end of me,” Vasquez said. “But, thank God we have life. Material things can be rebuilt but life can’t.”
Volunteers from My Block My Hood My City, and workers from the Streets and Sanitation department pick up tree debris in the Gage Park neighborhood after a strong storm system passed through the Chicago area the previous evening, on June 21, 2021 in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Around 6 p.m. Monday, about 20 volunteers with My Block, My Hood, My City helped continue what city workers had started earlier. They used a chain saw to cut thick branches into smaller pieces, broke limbs and packed them into paper bags and swept the streets.
Piles of broken down trees lined Homan Avenue in Gage Park Monday afternoon blocking the sidewalk in front of a handful of damaged homes that were hit by the storm. A tree was split down the middle, its top half missing.
Cars with shattered windows, fallen side mirrors and dents had been moved to make way for city workers to remove the trees from front porches.
Jillian Carew said she saw an Instagram post from M3 asking people to help clean the block and decided to go help.
“Oftentimes we think about other people coming to save us but actually we are the people that’s going to save ourselves,” Carew said.
Eddie Guillen also saw the Instagram post asking for volunteers.
“It’s heartbreaking to see,” he said. “Because some of these vehicles, they’re lifelines for residents.”
Guillen said the volunteer work allows people from different areas of Chicagoland to come together and help a community in need.
Galdino Perez continued cleaning his yard Monday evening as his family sat on their porch steps, a saw sitting between Alberto Olvera and Lionel Nolasco.
“They stole our tree,” Perez joked.
The tree outside their front yard is half its height now, and their black metal fence is bent toward their front porch.
Perez said they didn’t feel the storm coming initially, and then: “We felt the way you do when someone randomly slaps you,” he said, laughing.
Ann Michels sweeps glass off the street from a vehicle that was shattered by falling tree debris in the Gage Park neighborhood after a strong storm system passed through the area the previous evening, on June 21, 2021 in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
A tree branch broke a window on the top floor of their home. He said he was worried that the same storm that was able to uproot trees could take the top of his house. He’s grateful that wasn’t the case.
Ernesto González, a marketing manager for M3, said the nonprofit received an email requesting their help.
“I think we helped out the city a lot and hopefully by (Tuesday) afternoon the block will be back to normal,” he said. “That’s the goal.”
Volunteers help clean storm damage in Gage Park
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