Swift response, teamwork by IDOT helps a southern Illinois town rebuild after a tornado

When Josh Galloway, operations supervisor for District 7 in Effingham, got the call around 9 p.m. Friday, March 31, little did he know that his life would be consumed for the next week with local officials and IDOT staff as they coordinated the cleanup of Robinson, a small rural community in Crawford County hit by a deadly tornado.

In its wake, the tornado had left debris from destroyed houses and barns. Utility poles were down and scattered across Illinois 1 and 33.

Galloway quickly contacted all highway maintainers from the Robinson maintenance yard and requested additional help from the Newton yard to begin closure of Illinois 1 and 33. Fortunately, the tornado missed hitting the Robinson yard, and workers were able to retrieve needed equipment. By teaming up with the Illinois State Police and local first responders and public works staff, IDOT staff was able to not only close the state highways but also barricade unsafe county roads.

In the meantime, an incident command center was opened at the Robinson Community Center. This allowed Galloway to get real-time information and relay it to his team.

“A shout out to the local emergency response people,” said Galloway. “Being in the command center for the first several hours, there was a lot of knowledge in the room, and they were able to get boots on the ground.”

Thanks to their efficiency, search and rescue teams were deployed before midnight.

Following search and rescue efforts, Galloway and Operations Field Engineer Doug Rudolphi, who arrived at the scene around 1:30 a.m., began discussing road closures, detour routes and personnel assignments.

It was apparent that Illinois 1 would need to be closed several days for de­bris removal and cleanup. Around 6 a.m. on Saturday, April 1, District 7 Sign Shop Supervisor Phil Boyer called in his employees to start creating detour signs. Within a few hours, the road closure and advance warning signs were installed.

Next step: utility poles. Crews from Ameren arrived to clear the roads of util­ity poles and re-establish power. IDOT crews assisted in maintaining traffic con­trol during this time so Ameren could do its job safely. Illinois 1 reopened in the early morning hours of Tuesday, April 4.

Although Illinois 1 was now open to traf­fic, there was still an excessive amount of debris along the road. After receiving a request from Crawford County for help with debris removal, IDOT began clearing the rubble on Friday, April 7. The decision was soon made to close the road for a couple more days to give crews safer and more efficient access. IDOT highway maintainers from other yards and Day Labor crews came to Robinson to assist.  At one point, there were about 20 workers, three track hoes and up to 12 trucks working to remove about 150 loads of debris from the right-of-way.

For many of the employees from the Robinson maintenance yard, securing the safety of the roads, cleaning up the area and making sure the community was safe was not just a job, but a per­sonal commitment to their community. During rubble removal, crews came upon some photos. Robinson yard work­ers were able to identify the owners of the photos and return them.