ROCHELLE — One of Brian VanVickle’s most vivid memories from the 2015 EF4 tornado that hit rural Rochelle was a phone call with his mother.
“She called me and said, 'I think your house got hit,'” VanVickle said. “I said, 'Yeah, it did.' Because I had already talked to my brother in law. She was just trying to be a mom. I just told her everyone was OK, and that things can be replaced. I said I had to go to work and hung up the phone.”
April 9 is the 10-year anniversary of the tornado that brought 200 mile per hour winds that damaged 179 structures and demolished 30 homes near Rochelle. There were no fatalities in the local area and most injuries were minor. The tornado first touched down in Lee County west of Ashton before destroying most of its 30 homes in a subdivision northwest of Flagg Center. The twister then cut a northeasterly path through Ogle County to the small DeKalb County village of Fairdale where two women were killed and most homes devastated.
VanVickle owned one of the homes that was destroyed near Rochelle and headed up most of the first responders that day.
“It's still emotional to think about,” VanVickle said. “Those are the phone calls you remember. I remember my brother in law calling and saying both of our houses were gone. And then a couple days later on Saturday you remember all of the people that came out to help.”
The National Weather service had released information about potential severe weather in the area several days prior to the tornado, VanVickle said. Local officials were told that if the sun came out in the early afternoon, a bad storm would follow. That was the case, and VanVickle recalls ramping up preparations when warning signs started the show.
During the weeks before the tornado, the Ogle County Sheriff’s Office was preparing for one of its nuclear plant emergency drills. Those plans were put to use sooner than expected.
“That night I went to a meeting in Dixon,” VanVickle said. “We're used to thunderstorms here, but the sky was coal black. The storm started near where we were in Dixon. Shortly after that, all of the information started to come in. We rolled our nuclear response plans with barricades and everything we do with that into the response to the tornado. We used all those preplans for the tornado that night. Our first priority on a night like that is life safety issues. It's making sure the people that were injured received the support they needed.”
VanVickle said he was thankful there were no deaths and minimal injuries. He believes that can be attributed to warnings and messaging put out ahead of the storm with information from the National Weather Service.
Recovery efforts took place in the days that followed the tornado. Relief groups came to the area including nongovernmental organizations like Samaritan's Purse, which VanVickle thanked for having the community’s best interest at heart and trying to get people on the road to recovery.
VanVickle estimates he slept about eight hours total in the three days after the weather event. He recalls people coming to the site of his home to help with things he couldn’t, because he was busy with sheriff responsibilities.
“There was a big community outreach,” VanVickle said. “And it wasn't just for my family. It was for everybody. I remember being at the old high school parking lot with 2,000 or however many volunteers there were that morning. Samaritan's Purse helped with organizing that. Those weren't just people from Rochelle or Ogle County. Those people were from all over the midwest. That meant a lot to us, the people coming out.”
As the area finds itself in storm season again this year, VanVickle said his office continues to be prepared for emergencies. He believes Ogle County has become a leader in emergency management for rural communities because of its past response to real world events and its regular nuclear plant drills.
Technology in storm preparation has made strides in the past 10 years, VanVickle said. The Ogle County Dispatch Center now has a dashboard with storm trackers and live radar. There is new development in public alert and warning systems where alarms can be sent to cell phones.
“We were prepared that day and as we move forward into storm season again, we're even better prepared now with different and additional technology and resources,” VanVickle said. “When it strikes that close to home like it did that day, you don't take those warnings lightly. You continue to try to make sure that everybody has the best information going forward.”
VanVickle was in office as sheriff for a total of four months before the tornado hit. He said he was fortunate to have been through drills beforehand and that his office had a veteran command staff in place with people that knew what their roles were in a disaster.
Stories of lost items from the area on April 9, 2015 are in no short supply. Items from rural Rochelle were found all the way on the shore of Lake Michigan.
“The craziest story we had was, when my son was little, my grandfather gave him a Boston Celtics jersey for his birthday,” VanVickle said. “It was small and on a hanger. A girl from my daughter's volleyball team found it after the tornado and it was still on the hanger. And it was clean as could be. That's wild to me, having a piece of clothing still on a hanger and not dirty and found 45-50 miles away.”
VanVickle has multiple generations of family history in Rochelle. That meant when the tornado happened, he knew pretty much everyone that suffered losses. The good that came with that bad was that when he went to their door to check on those people, they saw a familiar face.
“We did that with everyone that was impacted,” VanVickle said. “We checked on them multiple times. That's what you do. That's what rural communities do, they check on each other. That's what we continue to do. I think the biggest takeaway from it for me was that everybody was OK and things can be replaced. Just like what I told my mom when she called me after the tornado. At the end of the day, that's always our goal, to make sure that everybody is safe. Houses can be replaced. Possessions can be bought again. But people can't.”
