Huntoon Stables in North Aurora relocates 11 horses after Friday's storm damages building's roof

The owners of Huntoon Stables in North Aurora had just finished their last riding lesson and had put the horse into a stall when Friday's severe storms took aim at the business.

"The roof came off within seconds of that," said Christopher Huntoon, who owns Huntoon Stables with his parents, Carleton and Melinda. "The time that we heard the winds ramp up to the time that the roof was gone and the main damage was done was all in under a minute."

Huntoon Stables is located at 507 Oak St. in North Aurora.

The fast-moving storm blew off the northwest corner of the arena building. None of the 21 horses or any people were injured and about half the arena is still securely covered.

"There's probably damage to 40% of the roof," he said. "The stalls are covered and there are walls all the way around," Christopher Huntoon said.

Because of the damage to the roof, 11 horses have been temporarily relocated. Huntoon Stables is a fourth-generation family business.

It has been at its current location since 1989. This is the most damage Huntoon Stables has seen at its current location.

"We've had other storms go through and had things happen that you'd expect from a heavy thunderstorm, like a broken window from a falling tree branch," Christopher Huntoon said. "But we've never really had any severe damage to the building. That first 20 seconds of wind that came through was louder than anything we've ever experienced. It was just deafening inside."

On Sunday, customers and former customers helped in the cleanup efforts, which the Huntoon family greatly appreciated.

"The support we had was amazing," Christopher Huntoon said. "And our contractors were on site and worked to try and temporarily secure the building from more wind damage."

The owners are still trying to assess the situation.

"There's one half of the building that's still covered," he said. "A contractor said it was probably secure to work in. We can get our horses out and keep them exercising, the ones that are still in the building. The south end of the building still has a roof and the contractors today said they feel that end is secure enough to keep the horses safe."

With potentially strong storms predicted again on Tuesday, Christopher Huntoon said they are weighing their options.

"We might just move the other 10 horses out to be safe and then regroup at the end of the week," he said. "It's still kind of up in the air as to what that looks like. We're trying to figure out whether we can maintain some business in the meantime or whether we'll have to be totally shut down until they can do some repairs."