Monday marks 5 years since Ottawa-Naplate tornado

Five years ago from Monday, an unseasonably warm winter day turned into a violent storm.

An EF3 tornado touched down in Naplate and Ottawa. It began at Buffalo Rock State Park and traveled 11.5 miles to just northwest of Marseilles.

Two people died as a result of the tornado – David “D.J.” Johnson and Wayne Tuntland Sr. Both were in the back yard of a South Side Ottawa home when a tree fell.

Few sites remain as reminders of that day: A stone was placed on Ottawa Avenue between Naplate and Ottawa to remember the Feb. 28, 2017, tornado, and the volunteer and charitable effort after the storm that brought the communities together.

A Disaster Recovery Fund through the Starved Rock Country Community Foundation had accumulated more than $326,000. The Long Term Disaster Recovery Team distributed more than $300,000 to the those in need throughout the community.

The majority of homes were rebuilt in Naplate. Additionally, St. Mary Church at 2005 Center St. sustained structural damage and was razed. A shrine, however, was constructed on the land where the tornado damaged the church.

Residents on Ottawa’s South Side and in Naplate neighborhoods described that night as terrifying. The tornado left blocks tangled in downed wires, tree branches and limbs and other debris. Residents of the La Salle County Nursing Home were taken to a school after the building had been clipped by the tornado.

A year after the tornado, the laundromat at 19th Avenue and Center Street in Naplate was demolished. On the next block of 19th Avenue — as it dead-ends next to the Pilkington glass factory — a number of houses were condemned after the tornado. Some were replaced or renovated. The Village Grille and Pilkington were among the businesses damaged by the tornado.

A new office and shop building for the La Salle County Highway Department has since been built along Dee Bennett Road to replace buildings destroyed in the tornado.