Families experience double damage from second severe storm

CHRISTIAN COUNTY, Ill. (WAND) - A severe storm hit Christian County at the end of June, and a tornado hit a similar area just yesterday.

For many families in the area, the second storm came just after they completed repairs from the initial set of damage.

"On June 29th, we had major major damage done," said Louis Laughlin, who lives in Christian County. "We had a big limb that fell on the backside of the house and so I've been waiting for the roofers to get here and they got here in the last few days. So they've repaired that damage and had most of the roof repaired....so at 9:30 last night the top part they repaired came off again and they had to come back and put stuff down to stop the rain."

Laughlin said many of his neighbors had similar experiences where they had just completed repairs that were destroyed in the tornado.

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Christian County Chief Deputy Jim Baker said the tornado traveled in the same path as it did in June. When he responded to the storms, some residents already knew his name from the first time he had come over.

"Your hearts go out to those people that that really struggled to repair and then have a second line of storms just within a month and a half later come through and the storm literally follow the same line of path that it had previously done," said Baker.

Many families shared stories of their damages, including Susan Higgason, whose home was hit in both storms. She said they had just gotten everything cleaned up when the tornado hit.

"Yesterday, that's how it felt it was like, 'Okay we are making progress, we are able to see the end result,' and then the storm hit again," said Higgason. They suffered severe damage to their barn and a full wall of their garage was pushed over by the storms. Higgason had put up wood panels over the garage from where the storm in June destroyed the doors, but those were torn off in the tornado.

Affected homeowners were outside cleaning up downed branches and collecting objects that flew away in the wind. Many said they are waiting for insurance adjusters to come out so they can start repairs.