Red Cross in Joliet partners with city, church on meals for those impacted by storm damage

A Joliet church has partnered with city officials and the American Red Cross to provide prepared meals to hundreds of residents who are without power and lost food because of Monday’s storms.

On late Thursday morning, dozens of volunteers handed out meals to numerous vehicles that made their way through the parking lot of Victory City Church, 1741 Essington Road, Joliet.

Rusty Railey, lead pastor of the church, said 600 families already received meals Wednesday evening.

Families were able to expect more meals at 6 p.m. Thursday at the church, according to city officials. Railey said there might be another round of meals distributed on Friday as well.

Railey said Victory City Church has a “great affinity to help out the community.”

“When people are suffering, we always try to help out and so does the city,” Railey said.

American Red Cross is providing the food meant for residents who are still without power and need food. In Joliet, 934 customers were affected by power outages and 92 remained without power as of 12:13 p.m. Thursday, according to ComEd’s power outage map.

“We know a lot of them got hit hard,” Joliet Fire Chief Jeff Carey said.

At Tuesday’s Joliet City Council meeting, Mayor Terry D’Arcy said the Northern Illinois Food Bank was contacted to help “replenish some of the foods that have been lost with loss of the power, freezers [and] refrigerators.”

“We know there’s still people out there that don’t have power,” D’Arcy said. “We want to help them replenish their food sources as fast as possible.”

The National Weather Service confirmed three tornadoes moved through the Joliet area Monday night.

One EF-1 storm touched down in Minooka before moving through Shorewood and the west side of Joliet, with winds blowing up to 110 mph and stopping near the Des Plaines River.