'It was terrifying': Naperville residents describe the tornado that damaged their neighborhood

Naperville resident Daniela Kaleskova was falling asleep in her home on Nutmeg Lane when she was startled awake by an alert on her phone.

The word "tornado" appeared to jump off the screen as her son ran into her room, asking what they should do. They made it to the basement just in time before the brunt of the storm hit.

When they came upstairs a while later, they noticed broken windows on their house and damage to their car, which was sitting in the driveway. But when Kaleskova saw her neighbor's house - the roof ripped off, the upstairs level exposed - "that's when it hit me."

"You don't even believe that it happened," she said. "I wasn't expecting something like this."

The extent of the tornado's destruction shocked the Naperville community as neighbors assessed the damage and began to clean up their properties Monday. Here's a look at what others experienced:

An overwhelming experience

David De Ment felt helpless as he emerged from his home on Princeton Circle after the tornado swept through his neighborhood.

The only person in his house to hear the sirens, he had been the one ushering his family members into the basement and berating his mom for stepping outside to catch a glimpse of the storm.

"It was terrifying. Right as she was coming down the stairs, that's when it hit," De Ment said, describing the strange change of pressure in the air. "It's just kind of crazy to talk about."

Other than damage to their cars, gutter and backyard fence, their house of 14 years was relatively unscathed, he said. A residence just down the street, on the other hand, had been entirely flattened.

"I feel very lucky, very blessed," De Ment said. "But it's just overwhelming when you know a house 200 feet away is just demolished."

A windy drive home

It was drizzling when Nathan Rodriguez was driving home from downtown Naperville on Sunday night, heading east on 75th Street toward his home in the Cinnamon Creek neighborhood.

As he passed Naper Boulevard, the winds started to pick up, causing his car to swerve left to right.

"I was starting to get a little anxious," the 18-year-old said.

Rodriguez quickly turned into his subdivision, onto Cobblebrook Lane, into his driveway. Trees and branches were "going everywhere," he said, and he struggled to open the car door against the wind.

"It was mere seconds from the tornado being right beside me," Rodriguez said.

He ran inside and sprinted with his family into the basement as the storm "zipped right past us," he said.

"It was quite the experience," Rodriguez said. "God was there that night because that damage would've taken my car away. I was very fortunate."

Doorbell camera footage

Paul Arras and his wife were reading in bed when they heard the tornado sirens go off and headed to the basement for shelter.

After the alert was lifted a short time later, a neighbor knocked on their door to inform them of a potential gas leak on their block on Princeton Circle. That's when they realized a house cater-cornered from them was no longer standing.

"I couldn't even process that information," Arras said.

Erring on the side of caution, Arras and his wife went to his sister's house for shelter, though getting out of the neighborhood was difficult due to the rain, downed power lines, and trees blocking roadways.

It was difficult to see the extent of the damage late at night, he said, but they reviewed the footage from their doorbell camera and were able to "monitor things remotely."

At 11:07 p.m., he said, the house across the street was still standing. One minute later, it was gone.

'Heart-stopping'

Peter Kocour was already in the basement when his family came running downstairs to seek shelter after they heard sirens going off.

They heard a "giant thud" and waited for the storm to pass. When they came back upstairs at 11:45 p.m., he said, "all we see is red and blue lights."

"My family was scared," Kocour said. "The heart was pumping."

Their fence had been knocked over, and a large cottonwood tree in front of their house was "completely uprooted," the 16-year-old said, but the damage to their property on Estate Circle was minor compared to many of their neighbors.

He and his family were out until 2 a.m. trying to help clean up, Kocour said. He hadn't been expecting the damage to be so severe.

"Next thing you know, there's homes missing, roofs torn apart, people's furniture all over the place," he said. "It's definitely heart-stopping to see all of this."