COLONA, Ill. — Thursday, April 4, 2024 marks one year since an EF-2 tornado hit Colona, damaging businesses and homes. The Quad Cities area also experienced heavy winds, creating some damage. News 8 caught up with businesses and people affected by the severe weather.
Milo Veloz
Some of the most significant damage was the roof peeling away from the Shell gas station off IL-84, which landed on top of Veloz Motorsports & Tire Repair, a shop just behind the station.
"There's another building that was right here — it was a hundred foot long — and the gas station's roof blew on top of it right in the center," owner Milo Veloz said, explaining that the side building had to be demolished, leaving a plane of cracked tiles.
Veloz said learning about the damage added to his run of bad luck. "I had a house fire in March 7 of last year and we lost our house, we lost our three dogs," he said.
Veloz decided to focus on his family and passing down his love of racing cars — a sport he competed in for 20 years. He said that has helped him stay positive while the business recovers. "He'll race every day of the week if he could," Veloz said about his son Logan, who has been racing for 5 years. "You always want your son to be better than you are, and that's kinda what my goal was," he said.
Mandi Lannoo
Back in 2023, News 8 spoke with Mandi Lannoo the day of the tornado, who is the store leader of the 7-Eleven just across the street from the Shell gas station.
"I was actually in the back doing some paperwork that I normally do during the day," Lannoo explained in 2023. "All of a sudden I heard this big crash and boom, my back door flew open. My employee yelled for me, I came up, I looked outside, I noticed the Shell next door looked gone to me. We hurried up and we had to shut our door 'cause everything went everywhere in the store."
Now in 2024, looking back on that day, Lannoo said she's grateful no one was hurt. "That day was pretty scary for a lot of people, and I was just thankful that everybody was okay, came out of it just fine," she said.
While the Shell gas station is closed, Lannoo said business is still up and is thankful for support from customers. "It was just a lot of cleanup and a lot of getting back to where we were before," she said.
Steve's BelGrade
Over in Moline, one business could not make a recovery: Steve's BelGrade on 2431 16th St. which was just next to Teske's. The bar was torn down 3 months after the storm and the lot is still under the same owner but remains empty.
Black Hawk statue
The fate of Rock Island's historic Black Hawk statue is still uncertain after it toppled over during the storm. As of April 4, the concrete base is still vacant. The City of Rock Island still has the statue in storage, but there are no plans yet for its future.
