LANSING | Following cleanup efforts in the wake of Saturday's brief tornado that made its way through the village, Village President Dan Podgorski said attention now turns to insurance claims and checking with Federal Emergency Management Agency to see what federal money might be available.
The village emerged largely unscathed in comparison to other south suburban towns, especially areas of University Park and Richton Park, where about 40 people were displaced from an apartment complex.
"We are in pretty good shape," Podgorski said. "We didn't really sustain the kind of damage that maybe one might think would've come with a tornado."
The tornado that touched down in Lansing sliced briefly across Wentworth Avenue between 179th and 177th streets before dissolving near the state line, and was one of several that were reported by National Weather Service spotters and law enforcement Saturday. It got the lowest possible wind speed rating from weather service meteorologists, but still tipped a tree onto a car and threw branches into yards and streets.
Monday, tidy piles of branches sat on curbs, while down the street from Eugene Allen's home in the 17200 block of Walter Street, power lines lay coiled on the grass next to utility equipment and a pole that had stood nearby just days before. The wires and a pair of utility poles went down shortly after lightning split the tree next to his house on Saturday evening, and sent a large branch on top of the power lines, Allen said. The resident gave praise to Lansing's public works crews and ComEd, which had restored power by Sunday morning.
Allen's tree was split bare on one side down to its base, and bark hung loosely on one side. He said he cut down some smaller branches, but most of the cleanup was done by ComEd and the village.
"My telephone battery power charger was the only fatality," Allen said.
Cleanup efforts took on a different scope less than 20 miles to the southwest in University Park, where about one-third of the future home of DSC Logistics resembled a smashed aluminum can.
With its roof collapsed on one end, the structure at 300 Central Ave. sounded like an orchestra of groaning, creaking, clanging metal and the whoosh of billowing plastic under the open sky. Open loading docks showed walls bent at angles, shredded wires and twisted beams and pipes. Pieces of chewed-up insulation and gravel peppered the ground, and across the road, metal debris lay scattered on a nearby field.
Bernie Mohan, an employee with Frankfort-based Ruane Construction, said the 600,000-square-foot warehouse nearly was finished. Employees were scheduled to begin training there Monday, and DSC Logistics was scheduled to move into the building by June 16, he said.
"Right now we are waiting for an answer from the insurance company and structural engineer, but it will be on the fast track to get it back to where it was," Mohan said, adding repair could cost several million dollars. "About one-third of the building was damaged. More than likely the roof is totally damaged, the whole thing."
