By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

“It’s a mess out there,” is how Kirk Hodgson described the aftermath of the strong storms that pounded the west edge of Geneseo on Friday, March 31.

Hodgson is the manager of Pinks’ Paint & Body at 615 Hanford St., Geneseo, a building that pretty much was destroyed by the recent violent weather that tore through the area.

He is not only the manger of the business, but also the father of one of the young men who was in the building at the time the tornado hit….His son, Cameron Hodgson, and friend Ryan Thurman were working together in writing a song.

Thurman is employed at Pinks Paint & Body and also is a back up vocalist at his church, Word of Life in Rock Island. Hodgson is a music artist and the two men are friends.

According to Kirk Hodgson, the storm ripped the roof off of the back part of the wood frame pole structure and lifted a section of the roof on front part…”The wind pressurized the building which caused the front of the building to explode…Insulation blew out everywhere. The wind also caused a van, parked in the back lot, to roll over, turning it over and sliding it into the gravel,” he said.

He said rain water was everywhere inside because the roof was open…”It is now boarded up to keep anyone from entering,” Hodgson added.

Cameron Hodgson and Ryan Thurman found safety during the ordeal when they crawled in the paint pit inside the body shop. Kirk Hodgson said the pit is about four feet deep, four feet wide and 20 feet in length.

Ryan Thurman described the time before the described tornado hit.

“It was about 6 p.m. and we were working on a song when my wife (Brittany) texted me and told me to look at the weather on my phone.

“I did look at the weather on my phone and walked outside and called her back to tell her there was nothing in sight, but I said I would keep checking and we went back to work on our music,” he said.

The next message was a phone call from his wife who told him that a tornado had touched down at the I-80 and I-74 intersection – referred to as the Big X.

“I looked at Cameron and said ‘ok,’ that’s pretty close, so we started to walk toward the back door when we heard the tornado sirens…”We had heard those sirens before so we didn’t panic, we were just going to look outside at the storm and then go back to work on our music.”

They were looking to the west.

After the two men looked outside, Thurman said, “We could see through a leafless tree that the tornado was approaching us, but it looked like it was going to the right, toward U.S. Route 6.

“It was the first tornado I’d ever seen so we kept watching for about 10 to 15 seconds,” he added.

Things began to change dramatically in just a few seconds and Thurman said, “We then noticed that the twister wasn’t veering left or right, it was just getting bigger, and we realized it was coming right at us and we ran for the pit.”

He shared that earlier in the day when he was talking with fellow employees at the shop, they commented about what they would do if a tornado was coming in their direction, “and one of them said, ‘I imagine the paint pit would be safest,’ never thinking that we would have to use it.”

“I told my wife in a text that we would prepare the paint pit to climb in if needed, and I sent her pix of the paint pit, never thinking we would get in it, but about 10 minutes later we were in there.”

Thurman estimated that he and Hodgson were in the paint pit about four to five minutes…”We heard the tornado hit the building, about five to 10 seconds after we were nestled safely in the pit, it was a really short timeline. Before we got in, Cameron ran and got his guitar and his Mac Book. The sound was of an intense wind and ripping and shredding of metal.”

When the two were in the pit, Thurman said they could hear rushing wind “which quickly turned into the sounds of damage…We didn’t know what was being damaged; but we heard the wind. Because the pit is made for ventilation to keep air flowing out, there is a large vent in the ceiling of the building of the paint room to allow for paint fumes to leave the building. The tornado went directly over the top of us and was sucking air out of our lungs through the vent, like the vent was a straw…It went from being pretty windy to being the windiest experience of my life…It was definitely a tornado.”

“We lived through a terrifying experience and we are alive to tell the tale,” Thurman added. “The truth is I started praying frantically once the tornado was over us…’Dear Lord, Father God, protect us,’ and I was nearly in tears.”

“Cameron and I locked eyes once the wind became incredibly intense and our eyes spoke without a word spoken, we understood that we were in the middle of a tornado and we knew the gravity of the situation.”
“Even at moments when you feel completely out of control, God is still in control,” he added.