By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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CHERRY VALLEY — A tornado delivered the worst, but in the aftermath it brought out the best from a close-knit farming community that rallied to help their neighbors handle the mess the storm left behind.
That’s how Sherry Molander described the response from roughly 50 people who worked alongside her and her husband, Randy, all day Saturday and Sunday after a tornado struck their property Friday on Wheeler Road.
“It really brought tears to your eyes,” Sherry Molander said. “It makes you feel good knowing that out of such tragedy all these people came together.”
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The Molander’s property sits roughly in the middle of the path an EF-1 tornado tore from Davis Junction to downtown Belvidere, where it ripped the roof off the Apollo Theatre, killing one person and injuring at least 48 others.
The tornado wiped out a 60-by-80-foot pole barn that sits roughly 60 feet from the Molanders’ home. The south side of the house was also damaged as sheet metal from the barn was whipped into the property by the powerful winds. It also hurled two-by-fours through the walls of the garage.
“We had metal everywhere. It was wrapped around the end of the house. Out in the field. Out in our front yard. It was a mess,” Sherry Molander said. “It was instantaneous, and then it seemed like it quieted down. I guess it did what it wanted to do and that was it.”
The couple was inside their home when the tornado struck and no one was injured.
Neighbors started to come to their aid almost immediately. Then they returned again on Saturday and Sunday and throughout the past week.
“We were just standing outside in disarray and excavators, skid steers, other equipment, and food just started being delivered left and right,” Sara Paynter, one of the Molanders’ daughters, said in an email to the Rock River Current. “We had everything from guys in excavators to people rolling the grass with magnets to pickup nails.”
The same community and many of the same people rallied together in 2008 when Randy Molander was battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Paynter said they all just showed up at the 220-acre farm during the harvest with combines, grain carts and food to help her parents while her father was ill.
“The farming community is such a close knit group that you don’t even ask for help and they all just all show up when catastrophe hits,” Paynter said. “We will be forever grateful for the outpouring of help that neighbors and friends have given my family.”
The Molanders have since retired from farming about two years ago.
Related: State officials praise Belvidere community’s response to deadly tornado at The Apollo
The pole barn was filled with tractors, a farm truck for plowing snow and other vehicles and equipment. Now the property has large dumpsters filled with sheet metal. Making repairs will be a long process.
“This is going to be our summer,” Sherry Molander said. “This is going to be what we do all summer.”
Sherry Molander said the list of people who came to their aid was too long to name, and most don’t want any attention for offering help.
“Most of the people that are here, they don’t want to be recognized,” she said. “That’s just what farming communities do.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas