WASHINGTON, Ill. – November 17th, 2013 is a day Central Illinois won’t forget. That’s when an EF-4 tornado hit Washington, Pekin, East Peoria and surrounding communities.
Jenn Schrock-Smith recalls it was sunny and unseasonably warm that day when her family left Washington for their church in Peoria. They were lucky, she says, that they weren’t home when the tornado hit.
Wreckage of a home in Washington, Illinois after the Nov. 17, 2013 tornado ravaged several communities in Central Illinois. (Photo courtesy of Jenn Schrock-Smith)
Jenn learned during their service at Northwoods Church what had happened.
“I remember my phone going off and getting text messages and phone calls from friends and family asking if we were ok. So, I told my husband I needed to step out into the lobby…something’s going on,” Schrock-Smith says.
Jenn says there wasn’t much left of their neighborhood or their home when they got back to Washington.
“I just remember people pulling stuff out of their house, sitting on piles of stuff crying and screaming. It was a war zone…that’s the only way you can describe it, we just couldn’t believe that this was happening to us,” Schrock-Smith says.
The Smiths’ home was pretty much a total loss, all that was salvageable was the foundation. It took them 13 months to rebuild.
“We got back in right before, I believe it was Easter. So, we had our first Easter gathering at our house with everybody, so it was a little emotional,”
The Smith family displayed a “Washington Strong” sign in front of their home 13 months after an EF-4 tornado hit Washington on Nov. 17, 2013. (Courtesy of Jenn Schrock-Smith)
Schrock-Smith says.
Over 1,000 Washington homes were destroyed or damaged in the EF-4 tornado. Many homes and businesses in Pekin and East Peoria suffered significant damage as well.
Three deaths occurred in Washington as a result of the tornado, and over 100 people were injured.
