After deadly Edwardsville tornado, Illinois lawmakers pass warehouse safety bill

Tucked away in the more than 400 bills Illinois lawmakers passed during their spring session is a bill that aims to improve warehouse safety during a tornado.

“I was elated,” said Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, who authored the bill, which stems from the Edwardsville tornado that killed six people in 2021.

The legislation, which awaits the governor's signature, mandates that all warehouses in the state craft a tornado safety plan and build storm shelters in newly constructed warehouses. It requires county and city building inspectors hold a certification from the International Code Council.

The passage of the legislation in the last hours of the Illinois legislature’s spring session marks a critical step in a more than three-year-long journey to passing legislation in response to the tornado that flattened half of an Amazon warehouse.

The ideas for the legislation were largely crafted in a task force state lawmakers created to study warehouse safety that concluded late last year.

The family of Clayton Cope, one of the six people killed by the tornado, became regular attendees of task force meetings and advocated for the bill’s passage.

“The wife and I are very excited that it has passed, and we're hopeful the governor will sign it. We’ll be ecstatic if he does,” said Lynn Cope, Clayton’s father. “It's a wonderful step forward.”

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public Radio

What's in the bill?

The safety plan requires all warehouse operators to prepare a tornado safety plan within 120 days of the bill being signed into law or no later than seven days after a new warehouse becomes operational.

Plans must be specific to the warehouse, reviewed or updated once per year, and should coordinate with the relevant local first responders and disaster agencies.

This requirement stems from the findings of an investigation from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration that followed the 2021 storm, which concluded that some workers at the Amazon warehouse did not remember participating in tornado drills and others didn’t know where to take cover.

For warehouse safety proponents, the OSHA findings show that the warehouses need a storm safety plan.

“We want to make sure that we guarantee that there is one,” Stuart said.

This bill also mandates warehouses constructed after the bill is signed into law meet a “life safety performance level” to handle extreme weather events. In other words, warehouses must have a space to shelter from the expected weather and other types of natural disasters that could happen, Stuart said.

“You can have all the plans you want, but if you don't have a safe place to go, they don't do any good,” she said.

While it was eventually recommended, requiring storm shelters had been a sticking point during the task force meetings, as some argued more stringent requirements could force businesses to leave Illinois.

Lawmakers amended the bill, however, to only make requirements applicable for buildings that have regular activity — and not storage facilities or grain elevators, Stuart said.

Some may argue this bill doesn’t mandate enough changes, like requiring storm shelters be built in all warehouses.

“I wouldn’t say I’m done with this work, and I will continue,” Stuart said. “This was a step that we got to take this year, and it's moving us in the right direction.”

The third portion of the bill will take effect on Jan. 1, 2027. It amends Illinois’ county and municipal code to require building inspectors hold a certification from International Code Council, the nonprofit trade organization that oversees building safety. Previously, a certification from the council was not required.

Brian Munoz

/

St. Louis Public Radio

The final bill enjoyed bipartisan support, passing 51-2 in the Senate and 99-15 in the House.

“It’s one of those things where you hope it will never happen again, but you do have to be prepared,” said Rep. Amy Elik, R-Godfrey, whose district encompasses the Amazon warehouse that was destroyed and reopened last year.

The May 16 tornado that ripped from St. Louis County through north St. Louis, killing five people, followed an eerily similar trajectory to the 2021 tornado in the Metro East.

Four days later, the day the House took its first vote on the bill, Illinois lawmakers sheltered in the basement in the Capitol when a tornado warning was issued near Springfield. Both scenarios served as a reminder of this bill’s necessity, lawmakers said.

“It’s not a sexy topic, talking about building codes and what you’re going to require in some of these warehouses,” said Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea. “But Stuart’s work and the work of the whole task force…I think they came up with a good result.”

For the Cope family, the bill’s passage is a sign that things can get better.

“It helps us — gives us some closure,” Lynn Cope said. “It just helps in the healing process. It really does. Maybe this will help someone in the future. I don’t know. You’ll never know. I just hope it does. That’s all we can ever hope for.”

Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said he will review the legislation.