Listen Live
WOLB Featured Video
CLOSE

From the Huffington Post:

The unfathomable depth of the poverty in Pembroke Township, Illinois has been the subject of ten years of sporadic national media attention. Those years have brought flashy press conferences, failed government initiatives and little change.

Now, it seems the township will be passed over once again: after a devastating tornado ripped through the area last Saturday, Pembroke was not declared a “state disaster area” like so many other towns in central Illinois.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn told The Daily Journal that Kankakee County hadn’t made a request on Pembroke’s behalf. And County Board Chairman Mike Bossert said that the damage “might not rise to the level required to make that designation.”

This kind of buck-passing and speculative half-commitment from the government is nothing new for Pembroke Township.

An hour’s drive south of Chicago, the mostly-black village officially has around 3,000 residents, though the town’s preacher and doctor speculate that another 2,000 people live in the nearby woods, where census takers never go.

Click here to read more.

RELATED STORIES

Family Loses New Home To Mississippi Tornado

3 Dead, 25 Injured In Arkansas Tornadoes