Naugatuck Native's Home Destroyed in Illinois Tornado

Naugatuck native Ryan Morrison listened to the warnings last weekend about a tornado headed straight toward the Washington, Ill., community he now calls home.

But he had heard these warnings before and the end result usually caused very little damage to his property: a tree limb knocked over or a lawn chair pushed around the yard. So, on Sunday morning, he talked to neighbors in the street, nonchalantly went inside just before the tornado was set to come and made himself a sandwich before calmly heading toward the basement with his wife and two children.

Soon, Morrison could see a funnel cloud forming in the distance, and he snapped a photo from a window. He still didn’t think much of it. Then, out of nowhere, came the deafening noise and Morrison knew this one was different: The thunderous roar of whipping wind drowned out all other ambient noise.

“It sounded just like they say a tornado sounds, like a freight train driving through your front lawn,” he said.

The 39-year-old Morrison put the sandwich down and huddled up with his family while the tornado passed. When it seemed safe, he peaked through an opening in a staircaise and looked to his right - the side of his house where his living room should be was gone. He looked farther and noticed his neighbor’s house was gone. In fact, so were all of the other houses on the street. The entire neighborhood had been wiped out in a matter of minutes.

Everybody is OK

All of the Morrisons were safe as the basement had protected Ryan, his wife Molly, their two children, Lexi, 13, and Billy, 10, as well as their 8-month-old yellow labrador retriever, Mikey.

The Morrisons started seeing neighbors come out of their basements and knew it was safe to join them. Ryan grabbed a dirty towel from the basement laundry room and wrapped it around his hand so he could push through glass and lead his family outside.

Neighbors in the Morrisons’ tight-knit community embraced each other and gazed in disbelief at the overwhelming devastation. They instinctively went to each property to search through rubble for people, and they started a headcount. There were some close calls - such as an elderly woman who was trapped under a table - but everyone in the neighborhood was OK, Ryan Morrison said.

The tornado killed one person in Washington, Ill., and five others died downstate in Illinois. In Washington, alone, the tornado damaged 1,000 homes, demolishing many of them, according to ABC7Chicago.

The Morrison home - a two-story house with a two-car garage in a middle-class neighborhood that Morrison describes as similar to the house he called home as a child on Evening Star Drive in Naugatuck - is now a pile of rubble.

“I never thought I’d have to live through something like that,” he said.

Still, he and Molly are thankful for what they have.

Family Hopes to Rebuild

The Morrisons are staying with friends who love them, and they have each other. Their optimism never shined as bright as it did Thursday, when they went to visit their home and search for salvageable possessions before FEMA tears it down. While many would have been in tears, Ryan and Molly Morrison are photographed standing on top of their first floor, splintered wood and ruined furniture all around them, with their arms around each other and huge smiles on their faces.

All they can do is look on the bright side. They hope to rebuild, and it could be a year before they can live in a new house.

Ryan Morrison, an assistant principal at a middle school in the neighboring city of Peoria, Ill, has been given some time off to deal with the issue.

“I’d much rather be at work,” he confessed. “As we walked down our street, I asked my children this week if they would rather be at school or dealing with this, and they said school for sure.”

Naugatuck Steps Up to Help

Back in Naugatuck, some 850 miles away, Ryan’s friends, some of whom haven’t seen him since he graduated Naugatuck High School in 1992, are working to help him and his family get back on their feet.

They are holding fundraisers and will continue to do so for as long as it takes, said Mike Deitelbaum of Naugatuck. Deitelbaum and Morrison have been friends since kindergarten; Morrison was the best man at Deitelbaum’s wedding.

A couple of months ago, Deitelbaum traveled to Washington, Ill., to see Morrison when Morrison’s mother passed away. He stood in the house that is no longer there.

“It’s surreal to think that home is not standing anymore,” he said. “Thank God they were home and safe in their basement. ...They are being so optimistic about this whole thing. It’s pretty remarkable.”

Deitelbaum has been impressed, if not surprised, by the outpouring of support from friends in Naugatuck and those who graduated with the class of 1992.

“People from New York, Florida, all over are sending donations,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how long it’s been since people have seen him; they want to do something. Some who don’t even know him are donating.”

Deitelbaum said anyone who wants to send gift cards can do so by sending them to his house at 145 Linda Court, Naugatuck, CT, 06770.

Ryan Morrison said he feels “truly blessed” to have the friends that he does. He knows there are others who have nobody to turn to. He said if people send gift cards to his family, the Morrisons will use them for what they need, only.

“If we don’t need them,” he said. “I want to be able to pass them along to someone who does because many were affected.”

Editior's Notes: 

• A fundraiser on the charitable giving website Give Forward has raised $2,335 of the $10,000 goal so far. Click here to donate to the Morrison family.
• This video on Facebook shows the damage the Morrison house sustained.
• This photo shows what their house used to look like.
• This interactive graphic from the Chicago Sun-Times shows a city block that was destroyed by the tornado. If you move the cursor over the image from left to right, you vividly see what the tornado did to the neighborhood.