COLUMBIA, Ill — The cleanup in Columbia, Illinois continues after the city was hit hard by the severe thunderstorms that rolled through the Metro east Friday night.
Three-thousand Ameren customers were still without power in the city nearly 24 hours after the storm.
Thankfully, no injuries were reported.
Alderman Lauren Nobbe, of Ward 2 in Columbia, Illinois, said the storms shook her whole house.
"It just felt like a tornado without the tornado, and everything was just flying, and I've never seen anything like it," she said.
Behind Nobbe's house on Saturday morning, it looked more like a jungle than a backyard.
"I should have been running into the basement, but I couldn't even process what was happening. It happened so fast," she said.
The damaging winds, that came along with Friday night's severe thunderstorms, blew over not one, but two trees into Nobbe's backyard.
"I was basically just sitting there trying to keep the doors closed while the wind was blowing and water's just seeping into the bedroom," she said.
One tree hit Nobbe's deck, and another completely crushed her shed and fence.
"It looks like it was just pancaked. Luckily, I don't have a ton of expensive stuff, but I had some nice stuff in there," she said.
Some of Nobbe's neighbors' yards look the same with power lines down across the city.
She heard it could take days to restore.
"That's my biggest concern. I just hope people are being safe and trying to stay cool as possible," Nobbe said.
Helping Strays of Monroe County was desperate to find homes for the rest of their animals Saturday morning.
Brittany Reilly, the shelter's Vet Tech, said their power had been out since Friday night's storm.
"We've lost our vaccines and it's getting hot. We all pulled together this morning and realized we need to get the animals out. We need fosters," she said.
After the shelter posted on Facebook, cars filled the parking lot and animals were sent to cooler homes.
Reilly said the whole community stepped up.
"It's been a lot of fosters reclaiming their fosters that have come into the building because they had their surgery and went up for adoption. They've been coming back and taking their fosters back and just brand-new people that we've never met before coming to help," she said.
Within a matter of hours, the overcrowded shelter turned into one with empty crates.
According to Reilly, they started the morning with 100 animals in their shelters and by 11 a.m. it had dwindled down to four cats and 10 dogs.
"People showed up with ice and water and food and it's been great," she said.
Reilly said they need people with experience to take the animals that are left.
"It's getting warm fast in here, so it's important to get these animals out so they don't get overheated," she said.
If you are interested in sheltering the animals that are left, Reilly said just go straight to the shelter.
They will provide everything you need to foster.
Helping Strays of Monroe County's address is 4221 Hanover Rd Columbia, IL 62236.