Illinois advisers find clients with homes devastated by weekend tornadoes

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Financial advisers across the Midwest on Monday continued to reach out to clients who may have been caught in the destructive path of tornadoes that affected a dozen states Sunday and killed at least six people.

In the hardest-hit areas, especially in Illinois, many were having a difficult time contacting clients because of downed lines and power outages. Some reached clients and employees who re-counted frightening experiences and reported damaged and destroyed homes.

“I've never been through anything like this before with clients or employees,” said a shaken Thomas Henrichs, branch manager of the Peoria, Ill., office of Benjamin F. Edwards & Co., and a financial adviser for 37 years. Peoria is about 165 miles southwest of Chicago.

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One couple that Mr. Henrichs has worked with the past five years lost their home Sunday afternoon while they attended church services.

His assistant branch manager's home was badly damaged and she was still reeling from the terrifying experience. She told her boss about having huddled in her basement with her pet “while a train went by overhead.” She expected to die, she told her boss

The firm is still trying to get in touch with most of their 10 clients who they believe were in the path of the tornadoes that wiped out hundreds of homes in the Ilinois towns of Washington and Pekin. Each of those towns are about 10 miles or so from Peoria.

“It's frustrating because you want to help them but you don't know what they need, and communicating with them is difficult at best,” Mr. Henrichs said.

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Bill King, managing partner and financial adviser of KB Elliott Financial Advisors in Peoria, said the homes of two of his clients and one employee were hit. The firm is offering to help with shelter and financial aid.

“I haven't ever gone through something this bad before,” Mr. King said. “A lot of people were at church and went into the basements, but if they had been home, I bet there would have been a lot more fatalities.”

The storm hit shortly before 11:00 a.m. Central time and left thousands of people without livable homes and hundreds of thousands without electricity. The storms that sparked the tornadoes were felt in Illinois and 11 other states, including Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.