Looking Back at the Valley View Tornado One Year Later

The Memorial Day tornado that hit Valley View last year was the largest natural disaster to hit CoServ’s service area in the co-op’s 88-year history.

CoServ linemen began responding to outages immediately, and when more severe weather knocked out power to thousands more Members, they responded again.

At the peak, 27,000 CoServ Members were without power that week. More than 100 CoServ linemen and contractor crews worked around the clock to replace more than 15 miles of three-phase line, countless miles of single-phase line and replaced 88 broken utility poles. CoServ linemen persevered through another severe storm, heat, humidity and other challenges to restore power to everyone by Wednesday, just four days after the storm hit.

At the same time, CoServ’s Environmental Services Team safely disposed of fallen wire, poles and transformers.

CoServ’s Community Engagement Department set up the Snackin’ Wagon in one of the hardest hit areas so they could hand out food to volunteers, storm victims and first responders.

In all, CoServ field personnel worked approximately 5,771 hours that fateful week. Several CoServ Employees were also affected by the tornado, including Brianna McBride, a CoServ Customer Care Supervisor.

“You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing CoServ on a shirt or on trucks,” Brianna said. “CoServ was everywhere you looked and that meant so much. The fact that so many people jumped at the opportunity to spend their holiday weekend nonstop out there with us, it made us feel not alone.”

Caity Smith, a GIS analyst for CoServ’s Information Technology Department, huddled in her home as the tornado passed over. She said the biggest thing she remembers after the storm was the sheer number of downed trees.

“At first they couldn’t get to us because the trees were blocking the road,” she said.

CoServ’s Vegetation Management team saved the day by coordinating tree trimming crews to remove the trees.

After the storm, CoServ’s Development Services Department played a critical role in helping storm victims reconnect their electric service.

CoServ’s Customer Care team also waived any late or reconnection fees, for victims of the storm during the aftermath. The CoServ Charitable Foundation contributed a $50,000 grant to Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD) to help Cook County residents recover from the storm.