Tornado Victim Remembered as Loving Family Man

While residents of Washington, Ill., pick up the pieces from Sunday's tornado, friends and relatives are mourning the loss of the one person who lost his life in the hard-hit community.

Steve Neubauer, 51, was discovered dead in a ditch across from his School Street home.

Neubaeur's neighbor and friend, Lori Hagey, described him as a family man who doted on his wife and loved boating.

"They would take me on vacations with them, four and five days down the river. Always included me once a year," Hagey said. "We had a lot of fun together. We're just all gonna miss him because he was such a nice man, very well loved.

Hager says Neubaeur was planning to buy his wife new flooring for Christmas, and the flooring salesman was inside the house when the tornado hit. The salesman and his wife made it to the basement seconds before he could.

"He was in the kitchen. It came so fast that nobody realized that it was here," Hagey said.

Hagey said it took some time for rescuers to find him.

"We started heading there. We heard her hollerin', we couldn't find him. We all started looking, couldn't find him, and then we found him across the road. It was awful," Hagey said.

All that remains at the Neubauer home is Steve's beloved boat, which is still in the garage they'd specifically built for it.

"A lot of people can rebuild, but she's lost everything," Hagey said.

Neubauer was one of six Illinois residents killed in Sunday's tornadoes.

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