“I was at home just before the tornado struck,” he said.
The owner of Heenan Electric had received a call from the manager of the Pontiac Shell station at Illinois 116 and Deerfield Road, just east of Interstate 55.
“She said the lights were flickering and had gone out and they needed help getting them turned on,” he said.
“I was just leaving my front door to go on the service call about the time the tornado struck.”
Heenan said he drove from his home at 201 S. Main St. and arrived to find the gas station torn to pieces.
“The lights were out and water was running inside,” he said. “It was a real mess.”
Damage had torn siding off the building and a sign had blown down and crashed like a spear through one of the large plate glass windows.
“Someone inside called for help and said there were people trapped inside the cooler.”
Pontiac police Sgt. Jimmy Roberts arrived about the same time and the two men opened the cooler door with a firefighter’s crowbar called a Halligan — a tool Heenan carries in the bed of his pickup truck.
“We got the door open and 25 people were crammed in there,” said Heenan, adding there were some minor injuries, but no one was seriously hurt.
“Most had come in off the interstate to flee the storm,” he said. “The cooler was the safest room in the station.”
“We were all lucky.”
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