The Chicago Blaze have suffered a major blow to their facilities after severe storms raged through the area. Club President Scott Smith took sent out the following message to TIAR: "Last night the Chicagoland area was hit with two massive waves of severe storms that included multiple tornado warnings, hundreds of downed trees, thousands left without power and widespread flooding.
"Unfortunately, the Blaze rugby facility in Lemont, IL was in the path of one of the storms last night and took a beating. Our clubhouse and facility, in use since 1990, with three rugby pitches, locker rooms and clubhouse with bar have been the site of numerous Chicago Area, Midwest and National tournaments and events through its history. Including the Firehouse 7s that two weeks ago that had to be called early because of bad weather.
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"The complete extent of the damage is still being evaluated, we know for sure that the garage was completely leveled, with the roof blown off and walls torn apart. There are numerous trees uprooted all over the property. Tragically, several of the largest, fell on the clubhouse/bar.
"There is a ton of work to be done out at the pitch, we’re asking if anyone is available to head out there this afternoon/evening to help out with clearing/cleaning up the destruction. If you have a spare chainsaw or two, that wouldn't hurt either.
"Ruggers are a resilient bunch, we’ll make it through this and have our fields and clubhouse back up to the standard in no time and as ruggers are want to do, we’re looking at the silver lining in all of this. We are in the home stretch of building a new state-of-the-art facility that we’d planned on starting this fall, so this incident may have saved us a little on demolition cost! Plus, what a better way to get fit for the upcoming season then lugging around fallen trees and debris?
"Like I said earlier, if you’re able to come out and lend a hand tonight or later this week it’d be much appreciated. To keep up to date on the process check in with our Facebook and Twitter feeds."
The Blaze have been making a lot of strides as a club over the past couple of years and the destruction will be a set-back. However, as Smith notes it's not a devastating blow and it's a great chance for those in the rugby community to help one another.