Three weeks after a tornado ripped through the Champaign County town of Gifford, Gifford Nursing Home Administrator Chris Kasper says things are slowly moving forward.
“Just seeing some of the businesses re-open and starting to see some of the normal traffic and not the people just driving through to gawk and see what’s going on, seeing smiles on people’s faces again and people kind of joking about this or that. You’re starting to hear a few people kind of laughing, ‘Oh you know, well, I didn’t like that tree anyway, or something like that, or I needed new cabinets, but it’s getting back to normal in that sense.’”
After a boil order was lifted last week, Kasper says nursing home residents on Sunday were able to begin using regular plates and utensils, rather than disposable ones. He says it took several days for the nursing home to flush its water system and clean its equipment. Champaign County is one of more than a dozen counties in the state that’s been declared a federal disaster area.