'Sounded like a freight train': Resident recalls moment EF-2 twister ripped through Illinois town

Name: Colona, IL resident on tornado: 'Sounded like a freight train'
Uploaded: 2023-04-04T18:51:22-04:00
Duration: 4 min 13 s
Description: Amber Real captured an EF-2 tornado moving through Colona, Illinois and said the twister sounded like a freight train.

Colona, IL resident on tornado: 'Sounded like a freight train'

Amber Real captured an EF-2 tornado moving through Colona, Illinois and said the twister sounded like a freight train.

COLONA, Ill. – The worst she expected was large hail. Then the winds picked up, so she went outside to secure her garbage can on her driveway. Then the tornado came through.

"I was like, 'Oh no. I don't need to be that neighbor with trash all over,'" resident Amber Real told FOX Weather on Tuesday. "So I ran to go get my trash cans, and … the sirens started going off, my phone started going off (with) the weather alerts there, and then I just threw my trash cans and ran in my house."

"Right as I got into my house and shut my door, a fan that's in one of my windows blew into my house," she added. "So, I shut the windows, and then I started recording."

She posted pictures and video on Facebook of the swirling debris and damage left behind by what the National Weather Service confirmed was an EF-2 tornado with 115-mph winds, which hit Colona just before 10 a.m. CDT.

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The roof of the Shell station landed on a building across the street. (Amber Real)

The dumpster from the convenience store landed in her back yard. (Amber Real)

(Amber Real)

What used to be walls and ceilings littered Real's lawn. (Amber Real)

The tornado ripped a wall off a Colona, Illinois building. (Amber Real)

Cars were crushed by flying debris in just one minute. (Amber Real)

The roof is gone and the ceiling is now on the floor. (Amber Real)

The Hacienda is missing a roof. (Amber Real)

(Amber Real)

Another roof torn from a building. (Amber Real)

The view of Real's street. (Amber Real)

"Oh my God," she is heard saying in the video. "I was just out there. Oh my God! That fence, my car – that fence is gone over there. It's in their yard."

This transplant from the Mojave Desert said she was not used to any of this.

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"As I started to run back in, the rain started to come really, really fast, and it sounded like a freight train, like that's what somebody was explaining," she said.

The twister cut a 50-yard-wide swath through Colona and was on the ground for nearly a half mile, according to the NWS.

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"My house actually got spared, but right behind me here is where that Shell station roof went on top of this building right across the street from my house," Real told FOX Weather on Tuesday afternoon. She said the nearby strip mall was also missing a wall.

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The tornado ripped a wall off a Colona, Illinois building. (Amber Real / FOX Weather)

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She said she doesn't have a basement. A shower is the only interior room she thought of for shelter.

With another round of storms possible in the area, a strong tornado risk peaks at night. Real said she is already planning ahead to go spend the night at a friend's home which has a basement.

"Getting storms in the next couple hours, and if it freaks me out enough to not be able to go to sleep tonight," she said. "With the next round coming around 4:00 in the morning, we'll go over there, so I can get my kids safe."

April kicks off America's most active time of year for tornadoes.