Tyler Rowan had just left his grandmother, 67-year-old Geraldine "Geri" Schultz, an hour before the deadly tornado struck in Fairdale. When he returned, she was already gone.
Rowan had taken his mother out for dinner to celebrate her birthday when the tornado ripped through the small town just southeast of Rockford. As soon as he heard about the devastation, he raced back and found his grandfather.
"I couldn't believe what I saw," Rowan said. "He was banged up. I asked, 'Where's grandma?' He said, 'In there somewhere.' I found her in the rubble. She didn't make it."
The EF-4 tornado hit its peak just west of Rochelle and generated winds up to 200 miles per hour. According to the National Weather Service, its longest continuous path was up to 20 miles long.
As it made its way through Fairdale, the tornado damaged every home and business to some degree, according to nearby Kirkland fire officials. Several Fairdale residents were sent to Kirkland during the storm, and they remained there until Saturday morning as crews worked to make the area safe for their return.
Jacklyn Klosa, a next door neighbor and friend of Schultz's, also died in the vicious tornado. Rowan said his grandmother would drive Klosa, who was a cancer survivor, wherever she needed to go.
Klosa, who was 69, was found Friday morning in a bathtub.
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Schultz's family gathered Friday night to remember the mother, grandmother and great-grandmother they called "amazing." Rowan was supposed to deploy to Germany Friday, but he decided to stay in Illinois with his family.
"She always wanted me to be a police man," Rowan said of his grandmother. "I was military police, and she got to see me graduate. She got to see me in uniform."
