Rep. Schock (Ill.) on tornadoes: “Warning systems worked”
Live from Washington, Illinois, Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) revealed what he’s seen when walking around the communities hit hardest by the deadly tornadoes. Rep. Schock also addressed the response system.
“Well, it’s amazing. I came over yesterday right after it hit and we’re standing in neighborhoods that literally the only thing left is the pavement. Not a single structure. Not a single light post. The homes are completely vacuumed up,” Rep. Schock said. “And standing there talking to people who are just dazed and confused and in shock that, you know, they woke up in the morning and their house is gone now.”
He added, “I think the reason that there was only one loss of life in a community like this was because of the emergency response or the emergency warning system. I live in Peoria, and my phone was alerting, giving me the flood or the tornado warning system on my phone, which I was surprised I was getting it. And as I talked to neighbors and I said, you know, how did you know this was coming, the sirens were going, our cell phones were going off, and one neighbor amazingly came outside, saw his neighbor across the street mowing the lawn with his headset on, and went over luckily and said, hey, there’s a tornado coming, get in the basement. So neighbor after neighbor was looking out for each other. The warning systems worked and I think that’s why, despite the disaster you see, that there was such minimal loss of life.”