The powerful twister ripped through the Chicago suburbs of Naperville, Woodridge, Darien and Burr Ridge on Sunday night.
At least five people were injured when the fierce weather reduced houses to rubble, ripped up trees and downed electricity pylons. The tornado was rated EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale by the National Weather Service—severe damage, with winds of 136-165mph.
A spokesperson for the City of Naperville, Linda LaCloche, confirmed that at least five people were in a critical condition in hospital.
She added that at least 16 homes were “uninhabitable,” with dozens more damaged. ABC7 Chicago put the number of destroyed homes closer to 100.
LaCloche told the Associated Press: “We’re lucky that it wasn’t worse. We have a lot of utility poles and electrical wires down and tree damage.”
Naperville’s fire chief, Mark Puknaitis, told ABC7: “This has been a tragic day, certainly, for neighborhood residents, but it could have been a lot worse.”
Brooke Schneider shared a clip to TikTok after filming a delivery driver stepping over the tornado debris while carrying a stack of parcels.
Behind him, an emergency Servpro van is parked up, and workers and clean-up vehicles can be seen sorting through the rubble.
Reactions to her video have been mixed, with some TikTok commenters surprised at the delivery driver’s tenacity, while others focused on the customers who had placed the orders.
Synorei wrote: “He does not get paid enough to care.”
Toastedbread_105 asked: “Is he supposed to keep them.”
M joked: “That prime delivery does not play.”
Kole reckoned: “They take same day delivery very seriously.”
A TikToker with the user name 414ent thought: “Well the radio keeps playing when you crash your car so this is similar.”
Newsweek has reached out to Schneider for comment.
