4:56 A.M.

Vince Stevers hugs his son as they look out over their flattened neighborhood. 

Brahm Jyot, center, gathers some belongings with family members after their house was damaged by the tornado. The family had moved to Harrisburg from Chicago only eight months earlier.

Keith Huke looks at debris in the front room of his home on Water Street. “The main items I want to find are my medications, my calico cat and my arrowhead collection, which are all very important to me,” he said. Huke found his cat safe shortly after. 

Residents walk through a severely damaged southeast side subdivision.

An overwhelmed family embraces while resting from hours of clean up. 

A truck damaged by the tornado sits in a yard. 

Julie Shaw and Vince Stevers help Marilyn Shimkus, left, gather some of her belongings in plastic bags after her home was damaged. 

Eldorado firefighters Cody Mitchell, Patrick Mings and Derek McKinnies patrol the streets of the Garden Heights section of Harrisburg the morning of the storm. 

A family stands in the yard of their damaged property. Only two exterior walls of the home remained standing. 

Employees from Peabody Energy Company responded immediately to the disaster in Harrisburg. “They’re already trained in rescue operations so they were a great help,” said Allan Ninness, director of the Saline County Emergency Management Agency. 

Items found intact rest against a car damaged by the storm. 

Rescue workers help residents gather belongings. 

Keith Huke talks to a Red Cross worker days after the tornado destroyed his home. 

Keith Huke is comforted by a friend.

Keith Huke stands in what used to be his living room. 

A praying hands statue blown from a home sits in the gravel. 

Community members, family and friends gather in the Harrisburg High School gym to mourn the loss of the eight lives taken by the storm. 

The community gathered days after the storm to support families who lost someone as funerals started to take place. 

       On February 29, 2012 an EF-4 tornado ripped through the town of Harrisburg, Ill. I remember my roommate getting the phone call, from our Editor in Chief, telling us that a tornado had touched down and we should go check it out. We had no clue what we where walking in to. We expected some damaged houses and blown down trees, but the devastation was unthinkable. 

      Neighbors who had spent the morning digging their friends and family out of demolished houses now helped each other gather belonging. Families mourned their losses. First responders worked to clear the roads and secure the area. And volunteers started to pour in asking to help in any way. 

    In the days that followed I saw a community pull together and take care of their own in a way I never witnessed before. They cared for their community and they opened their lives to the horde of media that covered the storm. I feel so honored to have met the people I documented for months after the storm and to have worked with so many amazing journalist who showed true compassion for the victims. 

    It has been four years since this deadly tornado shaped the town of Harrisburg and took so much from the people who lived their. But this anniversary also marks the day that a community came together through tragedy and came up a stronger town that took care of its own. 

    I am forever grateful to the people I met while photographing this event. I feel that this experience shaped me as a journalist and instilled in me the desire to tell people's stories in the best and worst of times.