Chilly clean up in Galatia

GALATIA, IL (KFVS) - The freezing cold temperatures and falling snow on Thursday afternoon made for a chilly clean up for people in Galatia.

They're trying to recover from an EF-2 tornado that tore through the town of 1,000 on Tuesday night.

But, the sudden drop in the mercury made for some tough conditions to try to pick things up and begin putting their lives back on track.

"It's not livable. We've been staying with my parents for the past couple of nights," said Robyan Cooper. "We're in the process of getting to stay in my brothers house in Harrisburg. We've got a lot of broken glass and insulation inside our house."

The Cooper's neighbors carport tore loose from it's foundation in the 115 mph winds Tuesday night, and slammed into the roof of their mobile home.

"My landlord says ours is the worst that was hit that they own. But she did say that we don't have to pay rent this month," Cooper said with a chuckle.

Her neighbor stopped by his home on Thursday afternoon to check on things and see if he finally had power back on in his home.

"They said there was a storm coming. And then all of a sudden I heard a high wind," said Roger Withrow. "I just opened the front door a little bit and all of a sudden I seen something coming out of the darkness. It ended up being somebody's roof that ended up in my front yard and on top of my car, and my son's truck."

The clean up around town is being done by neighbors and families helping one another. And several Amish families are also helping out.

The Director of the Saline County Emergency Management Agency Allan Ninness says he's got the debris field figured out.

"We're looking at a length of more than six thousand feet and a width of just wider then a hundred yards in some areas."