HECKER, Ill. – The National Weather Service reported Saturday night’s storms brought at least seven tornadoes to the Missouri and Illinois region. Cleanup was underway in Hecker, Illinois, on Sunday after an EF-1 tornado tore through neighborhoods, taking off roofs and uprooting trees.

Neighborhood streets were filled with piles of broken limbs and cut up pieces of trees.

“It was chaos. Limbs were everywhere. My neighbor next door, trees had fallen in their yard and all that,” Ethan Lauth said. “We cleaned up a lot of stuff and just from this morning, the town looks a lot better.”

Kids and neighbors were pitching in to clean up homes and yards.

“Well, this is what happens when you get hit by a tornado,” said Noah Dillard. He could see the tornado coming and took shelter.

“Well, we headed to the basement and were standing in the corner. I heard this window break out. Really, I didn’t know much about what was going on. It was just kind of windy,” he said.

Dillard found plenty of damage and storm debris once outside.

“We found this tree on the house and shingles all across the neighborhood. Then the rain started, and the house flooded,” he said. “I had an inch of water in my bathroom and in the kitchen. It’s just a mess.”

The fire department said 10 homes had moderate damage in Hecker, but nearly half of the homes in town either had shingles missing or trees uprooted. It’s going to take some time to put the town back together, but luckily no one was hurt.

“Everybody came out here, everybody helped. It was amazing to see,” Lauth said.