Story by John Sharp
of the Journal Star

The Bible Holiness Church was crushed. A popular Pekin cemetery lost its administrative offices. A seed company lost five warehouses. A Morton apartment complex was sawed nearly in half. Eighty Tazewell County homes were completely destroyed and dozens of people were stuck in the basements of their collapsed houses for hours until rescuers came. Saturday, May 10, 2003, will forever be remembered as a nightmare for those affected in South Pekin, Morton and parts of unincorporated Tazewell County.

"We live in tornado alley and South Pekin seems to be in the middle of that. It is like living on a dartboard. You throw a dart and you don't know where it will land. It's not a question of if you'll get hit, it's a question of when." David McMullen, who is currently residing in East Peoria

One of those people in particular is David McMullen.

McMullen, 58, thought before May 10, 2003, that a tornado would never get to him. Instead, that night, he wound up being the most seriously injured from one of the most powerful and longest lasting twisters to hit this area in recent memory.

Today, every time he hears a tornado warning siren, McMullen says that he fears for his life.

That's because there has been mostly anguish for McMullen since a 200 mph tornado about a quarter-mile wide engulfed his residence at 105 S. Fifth St. and sent him flying across the dining room table to the floor at his kitchen door.

An object embedded into McMullen's side, causing a tennis ball-size wound and leading to three surgeries during the past year. He also remembers the punctured lungs he and his girlfriend, Kathy Sullivan, suffered.

"We live in tornado alley and South Pekin seems to be in the middle of that," said McMullen, who is currently residing in East Peoria. "It is like living on a dartboard. You throw a dart and you don't know where it will land. It's not a question of if you'll get hit, it's a question of when."

For the people the tornado affected, May 10, 2003, is the night all hell broke loose but also the night the people of the communities hit hardest thanked God for their lives.

Unlike last month's storm in Utica, no one died from last year's tornado that landed near Manito and did not leave the ground until it reached Woodford County.

"We were fortunate not to lose any life in our tornado," South Pekin Mayor Richard Huse said. "Our hearts and prayers go out to (Utica)."

One year later

The sounds of construction reverberate throughout South Pekin. But those sounds are quieter today than they were six months ago when reconstruction of this community's east side was going on at full tilt.

South Pekin (population 1,162) was the heaviest hit by last year's storm. Its damages drew attention from state and national media, including CNN, and Gov. Rod Blagojevich came for a visit.

About $5.5 million in property damage occurred there.

But by October, the reconstruction efforts throughout the summer began to take shape. A new Bible Holiness Church was dedicated during a spirited ceremony on Oct. 18. And new housing began to pop up on Third, Fourth, Fifth, Elm and Maple streets.

The new apartments at Cape Cod Village in Morton are each 1,245 square feet and feature two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Construction is expected to be completed in August.

James and Leanna Womeldorff of 105 Fourth St. were two of those residents who lost their homes in the storm and were able to return to South Pekin in October.

Like many South Pekinites after May 10, the Womeldorffs resided at a Pekin motel at night and spent the mornings, afternoons and evenings cleaning up debris.

In October, the Womeldorffs were able to move into a newly constructed home where their old home - which was destroyed beyond repair - once stood.

The only difference between their new place and the old one is a basement. In fact, the common feature of almost every new house built in South Pekin is a basement or storm shelter.

Across the street from the Womeldorffs, the Rev. Wayne Knipmeyer of Bible Holiness Church continues reconstructing the house where he and his wife, Judy, once lived.

Knipmeyer, who is a member of the South Pekin Village Board and also a skilled carpenter, is working day and night at rebuilding his home after having spent months reconstructing the nearby church that was blown apart by the tornado.

But even as Knipmeyer rebuilds, he knows his days in South Pekin are coming to an end.

In June, the Knipmeyers will leave South Pekin and relocate to Missouri. Knipmeyer said he is moving because of a promotion within the church, but the stresses over the past year also have been a problem.

Knipmeyer said he is uncertain on where his exact location in Missouri will be. He will oversee nine churches within the same district as South Pekin and will return to the village about two or three times each year.

"I like the people, the places and the area here," said Knipmeyer, a resident of South Pekin for 15 years. "I just kind of feel we need to move on. It has been a stressful year, especially for my wife."

Sirens and sewers

Since May 10, communities throughout central Illinois including Germantown Hills, Ipava, Washburn and Manito have been looking for ways to purchase upgraded tornado sirens.

They may want to look at South Pekin for clues on how to get it done.

Two newer sirens are ready to be operated at two locations within the village, but a search continues for telephone poles to properly affix the devices to. Also, donations are still needed to get the project completed by the middle of this month.

Al Bradshaw of South Pekin hauls debris as he works at demolishing the remains of a South Pekin home he bought a month ago from the previous owners, who moved away. Bradshaw plans on building a new home and selling it as an investment.

"I was hoping to have them up already," said Dohn Winters, South Pekin's Emergency Services & Disaster Agency director.

Thanks to a $10,000 donation from an anonymous donor, the purchase of the two sirens for $11,000 will be done with minimal taxpayer money.

Winters said the sirens were purchased from a Minnesota-based company he found on the Internet. The company refurbishes used tornado warning sirens and then sells them to smaller communities that cannot afford to spend $20,000 on a brand new siren, he said.

The two sirens, placed on opposite sides of the village, replace the village's only siren, located at the South Pekin police station. It has been in use since 1955.

Meanwhile, Mayor Huse said construction on replacing two lagoon liners at the village's sewer plant continues.

The tornado ripped two liners at the relatively new sewer plant. A state insurance program is paying for the more than $200,000 in repairs at the plant.

"Everything is working as planned," Huse said.

Businesses hit

Just east of Pekin's Super Wal-Mart sits the Glendale Memorial Gardens cemetery and its administrative building, which was damaged May 10. Reconstruction has been ongoing ever since.

The damaged office building stood for months and was not torn down until September because of insurance issues, according to cemetery employees.

"It's been a tough and difficult year for us," Betty Morris, cemetery manager, said. "We are concerned for our families. They are all very understanding. They are rooting and rallying and hoping we get done."

Cape Cod Village apartments in Morton as being built bigger and better than before. The tornado swept through the complex, destroying many of the apartments.

The targeted opening for the new administrative office is sometime in July. Ever since the tornado, the cemetery's operations have been conducted from a mobile office.

"We just can't wait to get into our new building," said Jami Morrison, administrator of the 25-acre cemetery that also serves as the burial plot for the late Sen. Everett M. Dirksen. Dirksen's tomb was unaffected by the storm.

But the Glendale mausoleum's windows and countless numbers of trees were destroyed. The windows have since been replaced, but Morris said she was uncertain when or if the trees would be replanted.

Despite those woes, when asked what the most difficult aspect of operating from a mobile unit for the past year is, both Morris and Morrison commented: "the port-a-potties."

Across the street, Sommer Bros. Seed Company rebuilt a large warehouse to replace five others destroyed by the May 10 twister.

The new warehouse opened in October.

"It's a nice facility," said Mark Sommer, operations manager at the family-operated seed company. "When you have one warehouse that replaces five, it is so much more usable in the square footage."

Apartments rebuilt

Cape Cod Village apartments are poised for a revival, and its representatives claim that once the 13 buildings are built in August, people will come.

"All of our energies are going into rebuilding and reconstructing," said Shari Fultz, a representative of Stewart Properties of St. Louis, owners of Cape Cod Village, a fixture outside of Morton for about 30 years. "We are concentrating our efforts in leasing and pre-leasing our buildings."

Rent for a new two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment is $899 a month. Fultz said the apartments are 1,245-square-feet.

Fultz said the new construction, which will be completed in August, is completely different from the apartment units destroyed last year. Those units were smaller: 870-square-feet in size with two bedrooms and one bath.

Since May 10, Fultz said, the apartment complex has added many new amenities like a fitness center and Internet cafe with 24-hour access. Coming soon will be a rebuilt colored fountain in the middle of the centrally located lake.

But all of those amenities are not the reason why Rick Stephenson returned to Cape Cod after most of his personal belongings were lost last year. He just likes the place.

Stephenson, the morning personality for 97.3 FM River Country, was in Louisiana watching his daughter's dance recital one year ago when the storm hit. He later learned about what happened to his apartment complex during his 12-hour drive to Peoria.

"My assistant manager called me and said, 'We were in the rubble till 4 in the morning looking for you,' " recalled Stephenson, 53. "I really teared up over the fact that anyone would be in the rubble looking for me. You just didn't think in those terms."

Stephenson lived in a motel for a couple of weeks, before his insurance company helped him restore his life. Soon, he was able to return to Cape Cod and move into one of the surviving apartment buildings.

Still, he realizes the nearly 2,500 compact discs, gold records and autographs he's collected during his career can never be replaced.

"I felt back to normal within 60 days, but even when you do feel normal, you think of things every day you forgot that you lost," Stephenson said. But "it's just stuff."

Comeback

South Pekin's David McMullen wishes it was "just stuff" that he lost from the tornado.

McMullen, who recently completed abdominal surgery, said he's been suffering from the injuries of being impaled in his stomach by debris during the storm for the better part of this year.

"It was a bad, bad year for me and my family," McMullen said.

Still, the storm's after-effects will not deter McMullen from one day returning to South Pekin. He still plans to build an underground house where his old house was at once he gets the energy to do so.

"I still intend to go back there," he said.