Breaking news: Storm damage reported in Ogle, Whiteside counties

OREGON – Mary Ann and Rich Rhoads were watching storm updates on TV from their Oregon home Saturday night when they knew one of their rental properties on German Church Road was “in the danger zone”.

“We were watching TV last night and they showed the line for German Church Road and they had this big circle and I said to Rich, ‘that’s going to get us’, and sure enough we drove out here about a quarter to 10 and it was like this,” Mary Ann said.

“Like this” included heavy damage to the old dairy barn of what used to be Ed and Ethel Dirksen’s farm. The barn’s roof was blown off with pieces of it strewn across the field to the northeast and across German Church Road.

A tornado was spotted near Stillman Valley, east of Byron shortly before 9:30 p.m., the National Weather Service in Chicago confirmed late Saturday night.

The NWS confirmed Sunday afternoon that the tornado was an EF-1, with winds registered as high as 100 mph. It lasted from 9:13 to 9:24 p.m. and traveled 7 miles.

An E-F1 tornado is capable of winds from 86 mph to 110 mph and causes moderate damage; the strongest, an EF-5, brings winds in excess of 200 mph.

Tornado warning sirens blared in Dixon and Oregon around 9:07 p.m., shortly before the Stillman Valley tornado was sighted.

The weather warning sirens in Oregon sounded three times between 9 and 9:14.

A metal machine shed which used to sit just to the west of the barn, was gone, exposing tractors and other farm machinery that was inside the property at 1314 German Church Road.

“It just leveled the machine shed,” Rich said.

The Rhoads own the property with Mary Ann’s sister Ginger McDanel and her husband, Gary.

The farm’s house had some missing shingles from its roof. “There aren’t any renters in the house right now,” Mary Ann said.

Further north on German Church, south of the Byron nuclear generating station, a "no passing" road sign was blown over along with utility poles on the east side of the county road.

Northeast of German Church, mature trees were uprooted and another machine shed was damaged along Merrill Road.

Connie Kunce, who lives at 5947 Weld Park Road, heard all the weather alerts and was tucked inside her one-level home when she heard the storm hit.

“I was in the hallway, scrunched down,” said Kunce whose home does not have a basement. “It took the big pine trees along the house and they fell across my driveway, and it tore the electrical service lines to my house. ComEd was here and pulled the trees off of my driveway, which was really nice.”

In her backyard, a large tree laid across her LP tank, which appeared to have been moved by the wind. “So, I have no heat,” Connie said this morning as helpers arrived to clear more trees.

“We were calling her to check on her as it was coming,” said Greg Kunce, Connie’s son, who is also a firefighter.

“I had my alerts and I knew about it,” said Connie. “I’m just thankful that it missed the house. My parents planted those pine trees when their grandkids were born, so that’s like 54 years ago. They were nice trees.”

South of Weld Park Road and east of German Church, ComEd crews were busy replacing utility poles and wires along Limerick Road and Black Walnut Road.

Brad Jackson, a traffic control worker with Heels and Hardhats Contracting Co., was busy this morning placing and removing signs along roads that had downed wires or damaged utility poles. Jackson worked through the night after the tornado passed through Ogle County.

A horse watched all the activity from a barn on Black Walnut Road.

“The horse is a little rattled, but the mules aren’t,” quipped the owner.

In Whiteside County, the storm rolled in from the southwest, and proceeded into Lee County toward Dixon before heading toward Oregon. Sirens went off in towns along the path, including Sterling and Rock Falls around 9 p.m.

Winds did destroy three farm buildings in rural Prophetstown owed by Gail Goodell, on Lomax Road, along the Whiteside-Henry County border near Leon Corners.

What crossed into Whiteside County became an EF-1 tornado from 8:20 p.m. to 8:22 p.m. north of Lomax Road; it headed north-northeast for 2.2 miles west of Yorktown Road, the NWS said this afternoon. Gusts were as high as 90 mph.

Sara Stutzman, 24, lives on the property east of Goodell’s buildings, which were found shredded up along the road late Saturday night when Whiteside County Sheriff’s Department, and Prophetstown police and fire departments responded around 8:30 p.m.

Stutzman thought the damage was caused by a tornado.

“I was sitting there cooking dinner and our of nowhere you can hear it come through,” she said. “Then I heard one of our cattle troughs hit the side of the house. I went outside and pretty much saw either it going right in front of us, or just past us.

“It was dark, and when I went outside I could see everything pick up. Water was picked up and it looked like a big mist. I couldn’t see 10 feet in front of me right when I went outside.”

Stutzman’s house, as well as a trailer on the property, did not receive any other damage, but she saw a 50-gallon oil drum flung their direction from the Goodell property. A pair of power lines were snapped, she said.

None of the nine people who live on her property were injured.

“We got lucky,” Stutzman said. “For sure, we got lucky.”

Henry County had a confirmed touch-down west of Cambridge around 7:45 p.m., the NWS said.

The Sauk Valley area is under a wind advisory until 7 p.m. tonight. Sustained west to northwest winds of 25 to 35 mph are likely, gusting up to 45 or 50 mph, with a 40% chance of rain, the NWS predicts. Expect highs only in the upper 40s.

ComEd reported power lines down throughout eastern Ogle County on Saturday, with estimated restoration not until late tonight due to the high wind. Other lines were down Saturday near White Pines State Park and Leon Corners.

High winds caused outages in Whiteside County near Deer Grove, Fenton, and the Hickory Hills III subdivision in Sterling; as well as near Maytown in Lee County.

A flood warning is in effect on the Rock River south of Prophetstown until further notice. The NWS gauge in Joslin recorded the river at 15.6 feet, which is 1 foot below major flood stage, nearly 12 hours after registering 12 feet.

Nearly 2 3/4 inches of rain fell Saturday at Whiteside County Airport in Rock Falls.