Fairdale tornado: Death toll reaches 2

FAIRDALE – DeKalb County Coroner Dennis Miller said Friday that a second person was killed in the tornado that struck Fairdale on Thursday.

Based on preliminary findings, the National Weather Service said the tornado was an EF-4, a violent storm with wind speeds of 166 to 200 mph.

Jacklyn K. Klosa, 69, of Fairdale, was found at her home, Miller said. Klosa died of injuries she sustained during the storm, Miller said. She was found in a bathroom, clutching her purse, he said.

"She was in the bathroom, which is the right thing to do," Miller said.

Miller said early Friday that Geradine M. Schultz, 67, was also killed at her Fairdale home. Miller said Schultz died as result of injuries she suffered during the storm.

Miller said that Schultz was inside her home, on one of the upper levels, when the tornado struck Fairdale around 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Millers said. Familiy members brought her out of the house after the storm had passed, he said.

There were no tornado warning sirens in the rural residential area, authorities said.

Police, firefighters and other emergency aid workers were sorting through the devastation that the tornado left in its wake in Fairdale on Friday, leveling 17 houses to the foundation and leaving piles of debris everywhere. After hours of searching, police were still working to locate some residents, DeKalb County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Gary Dumdie said.

"We're still working on accountabilty of some of the residents," Dumdie said. They're not 100 percent accounted for. However, we don't have specific information that someon is missing within this search-rescue area."

Several people from the town remained unaccounted for, although it was unknown whether they had all fled the area, officials said.

"Today is going to be a difficult day because we do have people that are unaccounted for," Kirkland Community Fire Protection District Chief Chad Connell told the Daily Chronicle early Friday morning. "For whatever reason, they may just [be unable] to contact their family members and they are somewhere safe."

Some 15 different fire departments from around Northern Illinois worked to search the 71 structures in Fairdale, Connell said. Eleven people were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life-theatening, he said.

Many others remain unaccounted for, and Connell said it would take until sundown for firefighters to make a thorough canvass of the area.

“We don’t know that somebody’s missing because they’re in the rubble, we just, they’re unaccounted for,” Connell said. “So we’re doing all we can to work with the sheriff’s department, and the fire department will do their part and the sheriff’s department will do their part, and together we’ll wrap this up.”

The top priority for police is keeping the area secure and trying to track down property owners and tenants from homes in Fairdale, DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott said.

“We have a couple people that we know are not accounted for,” Scott said. “We’re working with the fire department on that, others may be out there that we don’t know about yet, that transported themselves elsewhere.”

Scott said that people would not be allowed into the town until fire officials had finished their search and rescue efforts. Residents who have stayed in their homes can remain, although there is no power in the town.

Those who would like to offer help can make donations to aid organizations, but should not come to the area to try to help, Scott said. The town is closed to all – even residents who have left their homes.

“Although they mean well, we would like for [people] to remain off-site, do not come out here to help us,” Scott said. “We have a plan here set in place that we need to stick to.”

The buildings in Fairdale were heated with propane tanks, some of which are now leaking and covered in debris. Debris was hanging from many of the buildings in the area, making it unsafe, fire officials said.

The Salvation Army had sent a mobile canteens to the area, and the Red Cross was operating a temporary shelter for those in need at Rochelle High School, although Miller said most people were staying with friends and family members.

“It’s a devastating incident, the hardest part is things just don’t get done quick enough, it’s painstaking time to do what we’re doing,” Connell said. “We searched, heavily searched twice, all of the structures last night, and then we’re going to go back and we’re going to get into the very tedious part of it.”

Connell said there would be another update later today.