- Title: Illinois resident: "If you don't believe in God you need to come talk to me"
- Date: 11th December 2021
- Summary: EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 11, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DEBRIS FROM AMAZON BUILDING STREWN ACROSS FIELD (SOUNDBITE) (English) EDDIE HORTON, WHOSE MOTHER LIVES CLOSE TO THE DAMAGED AMAZON WAREHOUSE, SAYING: "All this stuff that you'll see in the pictures he's taken is from Amazon, actually, it's all their metal off their building, off the roof and their insulation. And my mom's been here since '75 and most of the trees are going now out here. Mom's not going to leave anytime soon. She wants to stay but the damage is is worse than some of the stuff I've seen in war pictures. So it's pretty intense. You know, it's not anything that I thought, when she called me and told me that, oh all my trees are gone, I got here and I did not expect to see this. So we've been out here since about six this morning. We left about two o'clock in the morning last night and came back this morning and then, not cleaning up because we've got to have the insurance guy come out and look, but just moving stuff around so we can at least get, you know, she got three dogs, so they got to be able to go outside and go to the bathroom and stuff. So we made makeshift fences to let the dogs out and do what they've got to do and then and then also get her van out and stuff so she can at least go somewhere if she has to. Because my dad's, you know, he's not doing real well, he don't remember hardly anything, so it's just, you know. He was sleeping, as a matter of fact, in the bed. She gave him his medication and went to bed and she couldn't wake him up and get him downstairs. But the house is intact. And if you don't believe in God, you need to come talk to me because you're an idiot. That house is still standing in the middle of a debris field that's bigger than probably 300 feet across and half a mile long that we can see, and the house is 100 percent intact. So, yeah, she had somebody watch over her. But, you know, I told everybody to, you know, they're saying, oh, we're going to pray for your family. Look, people don't pray for my family. My family's fine. This is just a mess, just stuff to be cleaned up, replaced, rebuilt, we can fix it. But pray for people in Amazon. There's two people over there that they're not going home, you know, and they didn't expect that when they were going to work, that they ain't going home now. Those those are people who need to be prayed for. You know, and especially the first responders that had to find them and pull them out of there. You know, that's something that as, a first responder myself for 23 years, you don't expect to have to do too many times. But when you do have to do it, it never leaves you. So that's who we want to be praying for." EDDIE HORTON'S MOTHER'S HOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDER BIRD, WHO WORKS AT AMAZON ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE WAREHOUSE THAT WAS DAMAGED, SAYING: "This is the actual building that got hit by the tornado, and I actually have a friend that works over here and I called her immediately, right when I heard it happened last night around 8:30. I couldn't even believe it, it was breaking news, live, and I mean. And I work right across the street right here. That could have been any one of us. You know. I'm praying for the families involved and all the people that died or passed away, died. I can't believe it. DEBRIS IN FIELD 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDER BIRD, WHO WORKS AT AMAZON ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE WAREHOUSE THAT WAS DAMAGED, SAYING: "So normally we have stand up before our shift starts. You know, any time a natural disaster or any bad weather situation goes down, they just tell us, you know, take shelter over here, there are signs that let us know, go here. I had a coworker that was sending me pictures when they were taking shelter in the bathroom, basically anywhere they could hide, because, you know, people had to think on their feet quick when that happens. Nobody expects it to happen, so you know, you got to think fast. Crazy."
- Embargoed: 25th December 2021 23:33
- Keywords: Amazon Illinois damage debris tornado tornadoes warehouse
- Location: EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES
- City: EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,United States,Wind/Hurricane/Typhoons/Tornadoes
- Reuters ID: LVA001F7LFQDJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: At least six Amazon.com Inc., workers were killed at a warehouse near St. Louis on Friday night (December 10) when a series of tornadoes roared through the area, ripping off the roof and reducing a wall longer than a football field to rubble.
Several workers remained unaccounted for as rescuers searched for anyone who might still be trapped at the Edwardsville, Illinois facility, authorities said.
Debris was strewn across fields near the warehouse on Saturday (December 11).
Eddie Horton rushed to his mother's house, close to the Amazon facility, when he heard the news.
Her home, where she has lived since 1975, was intact but material and insulation from the Amazon building filled her yard.
"It's pretty intense. You know, it's not anything that I thought, when she called me and told me that, oh all my trees are gone, I got here and I did not expect to see this," Horton said.
Alexander Bird works at another Amazon facility across the street from the warehouse.
"Any time a natural disaster or any bad weather situation goes down, they just tell us, you know, take shelter over here, there are signs that let us know, go here. I had a coworker that was sending me pictures when they were taking shelter in the bathroom, basically anywhere they could hide, because, you know, people had to think on their feet quick when that happens. Nobody expects it to happen, so you know, you got to think fast," Bird said.
Fire chief James Whiteford said 45 people had made it out of the building safely as of Saturday afternoon.
He said six people were confirmed killed so far, and he expected recovery efforts to last for at least three more days.
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