EFFINGHAM, Ill. (WCIA) — An Effingham resident considers himself fortunate to still be alive after a tornado devastated his residence last week, reducing it to rubble.
The footage you have just viewed has garnered nearly 18,000 likes and has been shared over 8,000 times across social media platforms.
Captured almost a week ago on Wednesday, this dramatic video shows what happened. Trevor Kreke, who had been renting the house for about a year, recalls that despite the blaring sirens and the alerts on his phone, he didn’t anticipate the tornado would head directly toward him.
“I’m still in shock,” Kreke expressed.
Kreke recounts that on Wednesday, while he was at home, his grandfather called to ask if he had noticed any storms approaching yet.
“He said, how is it there? I said it’s not raining. It’s not windy. It looks it honestly looks pretty outside.” said Kreke.
That’s when he says he learned the true meaning of calm before the storm.
“Glass started breaking and then I couldn’t feel my movement. I couldn’t control any movement, and it was pretty much a blur from that point. It was complete darkness. Then about 15 seconds later, I saw light and realized somehow I was alive.” said Kreke.
Kreke isn’t the only one who lost nearly everything. He was renting the home from Todd Koester who lives only a few hundred yards away.
Koester says he lost around 2500 bushels of corn from his grain bin. But he says the things that are personal, what can’t be replaced hurts the most. Like personal trinkets that belonged to his late father.
“My dad had all kinds of little stuff that meant a lot to him. And we had it for the farm and it was just little stuff. I call it junk, but it wasn’t junk to him.” said Koester.
Todd and his wife are staying in a trailer–their home also sustained damage. Bit by bit they’re beginning to clean up — with some unexpected help.
“There was like 60 cars in our driveway parked up in the yard. And how many people that actually came out to help this stuff up was unreal.” said Koester.
Both say they are thankful to see another day and have a message before the next storm hits.
“A lesson we can all learn is take the warning seriously, and it can happen. Even if you think It can’t.” said Kreke.
“We’re going to build a house with a basement.” said Koester.
Koester says it will be at least a year–until he rebuilds. Kreke says he has a GoFundMe online—which has raised more than 41-thousand dollars. He plans to use those donations to recover — and then give the REST to others who lost property in the community. You can find a link to that here.