Tornado destroys trees, cars in Elburn as storms rake area

It took less than 10 minutes for a tornado to rip through Elburn Wednesday night, shearing trees all over Frank and Delores Hudkins' front yard and dumping them onto the four cars parked in their driveway.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before. I called 911 and said a tornado touched down. The only thing still standing is my garden," Delores Hudkins said. "We didn't get electricity until 4 a.m. and the phones were out until midnight."

On Thursday the National Weather Service confirmed that a Level 1 tornado touched down at 6 p.m. in Elburn and a Level 0 tornado touched down at 6:15 p.m. in Lily Lake.

A tornado's strength is measured on an Enhanced Fujita scale, with EF0 being a relatively "weak" tornado with winds less than 90 mph. The tornado that caused serious damage to the Hudkins' yard and cars had winds of about 105 mph and traveled about a mile on the ground after touching down, meteorologists from the National Weather Service reported.

"It was only on the ground a few minutes, a relatively brief touchdown. ... It was classified as a weak tornado in the world of meteorology, but if you're hit by one it doesn't feel weak," National Weather Service meteorologist Edward Fénelon said.

While the Elburn twister may not have been much in broader terms, Fénelon says the eight-county Chicago area is "overdue" for a major tornado - something on the scale of the Plainfield tornado 19 years ago that killed 29 people and injured more than 300.

And that was only a Level 4 out of five levels.

Typically, this area sees a tornado of Plainfield's intensity - or worse - every 10 years.

"Being oblivious is probably the worst thing," Fénelon said. "I sense sometimes that the prevailing attitude is that we don't get big tornadoes here, it doesn't happen here. People need to have an awareness that we live in a dangerous part of the country that does get big tornadoes. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when."

Meanwhile, the Hudkinses face a daunting cleanup.

On Thursday morning Frank Hudkins ventured out with his chain saw and he and Delores removed the wreckage. They don't know what, if anything, insurance will cover, but Dolores Hudkins is trying her best to stay upbeat.

"We didn't lose everything, but we did lose a lot of really nice things. I lost things that can all be replaced," she said. "But my dog might need psychiatric care; he's still pretty shook up."

Tornado: 'My dog might need psychiatric care'