In 2011, Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain was in Springfield, Missouri, when a devasting EF5 tornado struck nearby Joplin.

The experience was jarring, he said. Chaos was left in its wake as the town of 48,000 dealt with 4,380 houses destroyed, 1,150 people injured and many residents left with nothing.

He knew when he returned home the first thing he needed to do was start the process of creating an emergency plan for Elgin should a natural disaster strike, Kaptain said.

“I saw what happened there, and I came back and met with our police chief and fire chief at the time,” he said. “I said we need to have a long-term plan. Whatever we do will not be enough, but we need to, at least, sit down and have a plan.”

Whether his actions were prescient in light of the EF1 and EF0 tornadoes that touched down Wednesday night in Elgin or simply pragmatic, that advance planning was fortuitous.

The tornadoes that struck the city’s west side brought with them sustained winds of 85 to 100 mph, leaving five houses uninhabitable and another three dozen damaged. There were no deaths or serious injuries reported.

Before Wednesday, the last tornado to came through Elgin occurred on the morning of March 28, 1920, just as many people were leaving church following Palm Sunday services, according to documents in Gail Borden Public Library’s archives.

That storm killed eight, injured more than 100, and left in its wake dozens of damaged businesses and houses as it moved from St. Charles to Elgin, documents said.

Kaptain was leading an Elgin City Council meeting Wednesday night when the tornado sirens went off and everyone in the city’s Municipal Center was moved to a lower level. As officials learned what was happening, the mayor and City Manager Rick Kozal decided to cancel the meeting so staff could get out on the street to help, Kaptain said.

Firefighters started fielding 911 emergency calls about 6:20 p.m., Mike Oine, Elgin chief of EMS and Emergency Management, said on Police Chief Ana Lalley’s “Friday with the Finest” radio show on WRMN (1410-AM).

“It really ramped up from there,” he said.

Oine had issued a tornado watch alert to city officials about 4:30 p.m. “I knew there was something brewing, but we weren’t sure,” he said.

He was heading back to Elgin from Belvedere when he learned about a possible tornado touchdown in the city and contacted the Kane County Office of Emergency Management.

When he was back in town, he was stationed at the Elgin Police Department’s 911 center as dispatchers dealt with a flood of calls coming in, Oine said. City staff, including Kozal, headed to the Edgewater by Del Webb and Columbine subdivisions where the worst of the damage occurred, he said.

“(The tornado) was hopping,” Oine said. “It would come down, make a touchdown, go back up, and hopscotch through the western parts of Elgin.”

City departments, including public works and forestry, the Kane County Office of Emergency Management, the Kane County Sheriff’s Office, and neighboring fire and emergency services departments were called out to help. It was a community effort, he said.

Firefighters helped people retrieve items they needed, like medications, from their damaged homes and the Red Cross arrived to help victims, Oine said.

Fire officials assessed damage, determining which homes had to be red-tagged as uninhabitable and helping guide companies sent out to board up homes, he said.

The final assessment was 20 homes in Edgewater and 25 others in neighboring areas were damaged. One displaced family needed help from the Red Cross to secure overnight shelter.

Elgin’s response has now shifted to helping residents recover from the damage by being a resource for victims’ questions, fast-tracking the building permit process, and waiving fees for permits and inspections, officials said.

On her radio show, Lalley said the city is also providing information on how residents can avoid construction scams, which usually occur whenever something like this happens.

“Emergency management in general is to decrease vulnerability in our community through preparations. But if (a disaster) does happen, whether man-made or natural, how do we respond to it,” Oine said. “It’s not only preparation, like tornado alerts, but how do we handle it during the event and, more importantly, how do we handle it after the event.”

Residents have applauded the fast response from the city, which Oine said was the result of all the preparations — meetings, planning and training — that were done long before any natural disaster struck.

“It all came together on Wednesday night, and we are very proud of how it turned out,” he said. “Everyone did an outstanding job.”

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.