GRAFTON, Ill. (First Alert 4) – The front is boarded up and the roof is covered, but cleanup continues outside Dee’s Riverside Retreat, a combined Airbnb and event space damaged by an EF-1 tornado that struck Grafton a week ago.
Owner Denyse Hill said she hopes to reopen in a couple of months, but the toll of the damage has been significant.
“Since it caused no damage like coming down the street or anything like that, I thought it couldn’t be too bad. As I started pulling up on the property, I was very shocked and surprised,” Hill said. “To come up and see an entire roof bent in half and inside of my property, it was shocking. I didn’t know what to think. First thing I thought is, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to ever pay for this.”
A piece of a roof from a neighboring building was dislodged by the tornado and flew into Hill’s property, causing structural and roof damage. The tornado also tore up other parts of the property. The door to one of the rental rooms no longer opens because the building has shifted.
An adjuster and the insurance visited on Wednesday to assess the losses.
Hill said her policy will cover rebuilding the structure, but not everything inside or additional structures on the property. Though Hill said she learned her policy leaves her underinsured.
“I have enough insurance to put the building back, but everything that was inside of the place and all the other structures, like the shed and the deck, they’re not covered,” Hill said.
The tornado damage compounds what Hill described as a difficult stretch of weather-related setbacks.
“The last five years, it’s been hit after hit. And so I keep thinking, you know, there’s something to learn here. There’s some reason why I’m going through what I’m going through, but at the same time, it’s kind of like, ‘okay, I got to get a break now.’ So to come in here and think that this was the only spot that I wasn’t struggling in, this spot kind of runs itself.” Hill said, “Then for this to happen at this space, after I’ve already had to put so many things on hold here, it is just it’s devastating. It is devastating.”
Two rental properties she owned in north St. Louis City were damaged in the May 16 tornado. Hill said she had put tens of thousands of dollars into renovating those properties in 2024, a loan she is still paying back. She said while the properties were insured, that only provided a small amount of funds on the front end and would be reimbursed after the work was done. Hill said financially, it wasn’t feasible and end up selling the properties.
“It was easier for me to sell them as is, where somebody can come in and do all that needs to happen, than it was for me to try to keep pinching off of the work that I couldn’t ever catch up to be able to do myself. Eventually, I sold both properties. One, it really hurts to sell because it has sentimental value for me, but there’s no way I would have been able to fix it the way that it needs to be fixed. And so, I took a major loss with selling both of them,” Hill said.
Hill opened Dee’s Riverside Retreat in 2021. She said she and her husband had frequented Grafton before she took a leap on the property, even though her husband was reluctant. Hill said her husband passed away a month after opening, but he had seen the business take shape.
“He got a chance to see before he passed on that, you know, he actually called me a visionary,” Hill said. ”Then, when he passed on less than a month after I opened up, it kind of put my plans on hold and had me focus more on our real estate.”
Hill said the property hosts birthday parties, bridal showers and summer jazz concerts she is looking to bring back this summer, and she has no plans to give it up.
“Kind of knocks some things off kilter. So, it’s going to take a while before it’s up and going again,” Hill said.
Hill said three rooms were rented during last week’s tornado, but no one was hurt.
She said the community has offered support to help cover costs not included in her insurance policy. A GoFundMe was set up to help with the fundraising.
The goal is to have the business running again by early May.
Copyright 2026 KMOV. All rights reserved.