A Carlyle man has been identified by Edwardsville officials as one of the six killed when the tornado hit the Amazon facility in Edwardsville. He’s 62-year-old Kevin Dickey.
Amazon officials say 46 were in the building when the tornado hit and most made it to the designated ‘Take Shelter Area’. The six who died were in another part of the facility.
Meanwhile, Governor JB Pritzker is issuing a disaster proclamation for several Central and Southern Illinois Counties hit by the recent storms including Bond, Fayette, and Effingham.
The declaration gets state resources to communities quickly and jumpstarts the process for federal relief as well. Governor Pritzker says state officials have been on the ground all weekend, visiting areas where tornados and high winds caused damage including the Amazon facility.
“IEMA continues to work directly with local officials to actively monitor the storm’s impact around the state and especially Central Illinois. At this point, I am pleased to report that power is fully restored in Madison County and throughout Illinois where communities had power outages due to the storm,” said Pritzker.
Pritzker also feels a look at building codes is warranted after the collapse of the roof of the Amazon warehouse.
“It makes us wonder I have to say about whether or not we need to change code based upon the climate change we are seeing all around us. Suffice to say, that is something we are deeply concerned about to make sure code is where it ought to be. ”
In addition to the tornado that hit the Edwardsville area Friday night, another weaker EF-1 tornado caused mostly tree and power line damage from near Sorrento to northeast of Ramsey in Fayette County.
