Family shares their experience after truck was lifted by a tornado on May 8th

By Waylin Walls Parker

Click here for updates on this story

    HARRISBURG, Illinois (WEVV) — News 3 has been keeping an eye on damage from storms on May 8th. Near Harrisburg, the Eagle River Coal Mine building suffered significant damage.

Drivers passing by the building on Route 145 can see the storm caused substantial damage to the facility, including ripping off siding.

One family said they witnessed the whole event on their way to a safe space.

Jaycie Hunt and her husband Dakota say their truck was swept up by what they described as a tornado.

“I said, we’re not gonna make it past the hill,” Jaycie Hunt said. “It’s coming across the field. Well, as soon as we got in front of the mine, that’s when the big white wall smacked us. And it had slung our truck sideways across the highway.”

Dakota said he was driving and felt the force of the tornado pick the truck up.

“It was a little bit of a different experience from the driver’s seat,” Dakota said. “I was hitting the brakes just trying to stop and once I finally realized that I was on the ground, I locked it in four-wheel drive and I just went on with it.”

They both said it was hard to see anywhere and what was a quick event for them felt forever.

“That was very scary,” Jaycie says. “Like the trees flying by, random metal objects flying. That’s all you could see out the windows until we got through it.”

Dakota said while driving through the storm, he wanted to make sure his family was safe.

“You could just see sparks from the power line,” Dakota says. “They were shooting across the road all the way down here. It looked like train lights.”

Jaycie said they had their two kids in the back of the vehicle at the time the storm hit.

“They were crying, they were freaking wailing. Our two-year-olds. He kept asking guys, mommy, what’s wrong? What’s wrong? And I really, at that point, I didn’t know what to say,” Jaycie noted.

Jaycie recalled as soon as they made it out they started calling family members to let them know they were okay.

“We need to make sure everyone’s okay. Like, that was a blessing that we made that too because I honestly don’t know how we did it,” Jaycie said.

Returning to route 145 hours after the tornado, they said looking at the River Eagle Coal Mine put into perspective what their family had just gone through.

“We had no clue what we just went through,” Dakota says.

The Hunts say they are still in shock they made it out okay, and the truck only received a dent in the bumper from running into a tree.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.