IL Storms: Pritzker Declares Disaster, OSHA Launches Amazon Probe

EDWARDSVILLE, IL — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker appeared with Amazon officials at a joint news conference Monday to announce a state disaster declaration in response to last week's deadly storms. On Friday evening, an EF-3 tornado destroyed an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, killing six workers and severely injuring a seventh as the building partially collapsed.

Counties included in the disaster declaration are: Bond, Cass, Champaign, Coles, Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Greene, Grundy, Iroquois, Jackson, Jersey, Kankakee, Lawrence, Livingston, Logan, Macon, Macoupin, Madison, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Pike, Sangamon, Shelby, Tazewell and Woodford.

Pritzker said he expects federal resources will soon be on the way to those communities.

Those killed at the Amazon warehouse include Deandre S. Morrow, 28, of St. Louis, Missouri; Kevin D. Dickey, 62, of Carlyle; Clayton Lynn Cope, 29, of Alton; Etheria S. Hebb, 34, of St. Louis, Missouri; Larry E. Virden, 46, of Collinsville; and Austin J. McEwen, 26, of Edwardsville

According to the governor, local officials are investigating whether Amazon followed proper procedures during the storm and whether the building was up to code. The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration is also investigating, CNBC reports.

OSHA will have six months to complete its investigation and could issue citations or fines if Amazon is found to have endangered its workers, a spokesperson told the business news channel.

Amazon officials confirmed Monday that there was no basement or reinforced "safe room" at the warehouse, but that workers were directed to an interior area without windows on the building's north side shortly before the tornado touched down.

"I want to be really clear, it's not a 'safe room' as you're describing it," Amazon media relations director Kelly Nantel said in response to reporters' questions. "It's an area of the facility that is safe for people to converge. Generally speaking, it's in an area where there are no windows, so that it's a safer space to be in the building. It is not a 'safe room.'"

Nantel said workers were initially notified of the tornado by alerts on their cell phones — the same weather alerts everyone in the path of the storm received. But workers often do not carry their phones inside Amazon facilities since they are not allowed to use them, Nantel seemed to imply.

"Employees are allowed to have cell phones inside the facility, there's no prohibition against that," she said. "There are rules around what they're allowed to do with those cell phones, obviously, because safety is the most important thing for anyone who is inside a facility like that."

"We do know that oftentimes, employees put their phones in their bags or purses," Nantel continued. "So they may not have it on their person."

Workers have reported that Amazon's phone ban was eased during the pandemic, but is starting to be reinstituted and currently varies warehouse by warehouse, according to Bloomberg. The news agency quoted one worker as saying, "After these deaths, there is no way in hell I am relying on Amazon to keep me safe."

In an email to Patch after this article was published, Amazon objected to Patch's characterization of Nantel's quote as implying that workers are not allowed to use phones at work. Patch has asked Amazon to clarify their cell phone policy, and will add any information we receive here. In the meantime, we've updated the attribution, but not the original characterization.

Also, in an email forwarded to Patch, Amazon public relations manager Max Gleber objected to Patch's reporting of the dozens of tornado watches and warnings that were issued leading up to the tornado in Edwardsville.

"The article also seems to portray us at fault for allegedly ignoring tornados across the U.S. Central region and I believe puts too much emphasis on tornado watches, which the article mislabels as tornado warnings, which are quite different," the email read.

This article does not mislabel watches as warnings, which are reported below.

According to the National Weather Service, a tornado watch means "tornadoes are possible in and near the watch area" and cautions people in those areas to "review and discuss your emergency plans and check supplies and your safe room."

"Be ready to act quickly if a warning is issued or you suspect a tornado is approaching," the weather service continues. "Acting early helps to save lives!"

A tornado warning means "a tornado has been sighted or indicated by weather radar" and "there is imminent danger to life and property."

According to Nantel, officials had only "minutes" warning and began notifying warehouse workers of the approaching tornado with bullhorns and radios.

But severe storms had been predicted since Thursday afternoon, with projected paths available by early Friday morning.

"Severe storms are possible this evening," the National Weather Service in St. Louis posted to Twitter at 5:45 a.m. Friday. "The most likely threat will be damaging winds in excess of 60 mph. A few tornadoes are also possible, some could be strong."

Shortly after noon, the weather service updated their prediction with detailed graphics and timelines.

"There will be multiple waves of storms over portions of SE MO & Srn IL between 7 pm and 2 am," weather officials posted to Twitter at 12:41 p.m.

The first tornado watch was issued at 3:06 p.m. and was continuously updated throughout the day, nearly by the minute.

"The entire area is now under a Tornado Watch through 11pm," the weather service said at 5:43 p.m. "Tornadoes at night are particularly dangerous for a simple reason: you can't see them! Make sure you have multiple warning sources and keep your phone alerts on while you sleep."

It was clear for at least two hours that the line of storms was producing tornadoes and headed toward Edwardsville. The first tornado warning associated with the storm was posted at 6:28 p.m. in central Missouri. Another came at 6:31 p.m., followed by a third at 6:35 p.m. In all, the weather service posted or updated 28 tornado warnings before the tornado struck the Amazon facility at 8:30 p.m., each one closer to Edwardsville than the last as the line of storms tracked toward the warehouse.

Nonetheless, Jon Feldman, Amazon's senior vice president of delivery services, said all safety procedures at the warehouse were followed correctly and that the company took "tremendous effort to keep everybody safe."

Gov. Pritzker said he didn't know how many people received weather alerts inside the warehouse or who had their phones with them.

He called the tornado "an unexpected major severe storm."

"We are seeing more and more of that, I might add, throughout the state of Illinois," the governor added. "So it makes us wonder, I have to say, about whether or not we need to change code based on the climate change that we're seeing all around us."

"First, we want to see what happened exactly here," Pritzker continued. "I mean, we are literally three days post this disaster, and there is a lot of investigation being done.

"Let me also say, we should be pleased that Illinois is actually a hub for distribution, warehousing, manufacturing and so on. We want to attract those businesses. We want to keep those businesses here in Illinois. And, yes, we want to make sure the code is up-to-date."

This story has been updated after a response from Amazon. The attribution "according to Nantel" was changed to "Nantel seemed to imply" in the 9th paragraph. A quote was also added from an Amazon official criticizing this article for "[putting] too much emphasis on tornado watches."