Illinois town tornado disaster. End minute, 1 dead 10 hurt in Illinois town after tornado. One person has died as a result of storms in Fairdale, Illinois, said a state emergency management spokeswoman. Tornadoes hit parts of three midwestern US states of Iowa, Illinois and Ohio, in what forecasters from the National Weather Service warned was a “particularly dangerous situation”, media reported on Friday. People across the Midwest should be on alert for severe weather since the storms hit the region on Thursday, CNN quoted the weather agency as saying.
Tornado rips through Illinois
Illinois, killing one person and injuring eight others in one tiny community as severe weather pummeled the Midwest.
One person was killed in the tiny community of Fairdale, James Joseph with the Illinois Department of Emergency Management said.
Eight others were taken to area hospitals for injuries, DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott said in a statement. Authorities were still working near midnight to account for every resident, he said.
Out of the approximately 75 homes in the village of about 150 residents, 15-20 were destroyed, Scott said.
Rockford Fire Department division chief Matthew Knott told WLS-TV earlier Thursday that “every single” structure in the town was damaged.
The National Weather Service tweeted around 7 p.m. that a tornado was on the ground in nearby Rochelle and urged residents to seek shelter immediately. (AP)
According to officials, in Rochelle, Illinois, there were “multiple reports of injuries and damage”.
A video of the storm uploaded on the video-sharing web site YouTube showed a massive twister barrelling across an open field.
More tornadoes were later reported around Rockford — which is Illinois’ third largest city, about 85 miles northwest of Chicago — and near the Illinois community of Ashton, which also saw tennis ball-sized hail.
Eight tornadoes were reported on Wednesday in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, the Storm Prediction Center said.
More storms are expected in the Midwest, Mississippi River Valley, Tennessee River Valley and near the southern Great Lakes.
Tornado watch for parts of the area through 8 a.m.
The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for parts of the area as strong storms are expected to move through the area today.
The watch is in effect through 8 a.m. for Montgomery, Butler, Warren and Preble counties, as well as Wayne and Union counties in Indiana.
A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and near the watch area. People should be on the lookout for threatening weather conditions, according to NWS.
Although parts of the region are included in the northern fringe of a tornado watch, StormCenter 7 Meteorologist Rich Wirdzek said he does not anticipate a high tornado threat — the risk will be much greater to the south.
Possible threats with the storms today also include wind gusts up to 70 mph and 1.5-inch hail.
The region remains under a flash flood watch through 6 a.m.
A flood advisory is also in effect for Wayne and Union counties in Indiana through 5 a.m.
At least 1 killed as tornadoes wreak havoc in Illinois
At least one large tornado touched down Thursday night in northern Illinois, causing significant damage and prompting reports of more than a dozen people rescued from a collapsed restaurant.
One person was killed and seven others were injured in a tiny northern Illinois community after at least one large tornado touched down in the area, authorities said Thursday night.
James Joseph with the Illinois Department of Emergency Management said the person died in the unincorporated community of Fairdale. CBS station WBBM-TV in Chicago reported the victim was a woman in her 60s.
According to the Rockford Fire Department, all of the buildings in Fairdale were damaged. Crews were going door-to-door to search for survivors.
“We’ve had many wind damage situations, but no tornado touchdown to this magnitude,” DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott told CBS affiliate WIFR-TV reporter Mike Garrigan in Fairdale, adding that the west side of the community “was pretty well destroyed.”
WBBM-TV reported that Gov. Bruce Rauner activated the Illinois Emergency Management Agency to help local rescue crews and the American Red Cross mobilized its volunteers.
The National Weather Service confirmed on Twitter that a tornado was on the ground near Rochelle around 7 p.m. Thursday and urged residents to “seek shelter immediately if in the path of this dangerous storm.”
Robin Biggs, an employee at the Super 8 motel in Rochelle, said she took video of the storm, which she said “took everything out in its path.”
“I have lived her 18 years and I have never seen a tornado that big or stay on the ground that long,” she said. “What we have is a small one touching the ground and going right back up, but this just stayed down and went all the way across the horizon.”
Koleen Kessen, who works at the Comfort Inn & Suites in Rochelle, said she went outside and spotted the tornado a few miles away after hearing sirens. She said hotel guests told her the tornado leveled a restaurant.
Ogle County Sheriff Brian Van Vickle said in a news conference that about 20 homes there were severely damaged or destroyed, but no deaths or significant injuries were reported.
Van Vickle said 12 people were trapped in the basement of Grubsteakers, a Rochelle restaurant that collapsed during the storm.
“We knew it hit. We didn’t know how bad,” one survivor told WBBM-TV at the scene. “When we tried to get out, the whole wall was on top of us, doors going into the cellar.”
Around 9:30 p.m., the Weather Service said it could not confirm how many tornadoes struck the area but said one long-tracked storm moved across several counties, sporadically touching down and causing damage.
Winnebago County Sheriff’s spokesman Ken DeCoster said funnel clouds also were spotted near Rockford a few miles north but did not touch down.
Damage seen in Fairdale, Illinois, after a severe weather system, including tornadoes, moved through central Illinois.
The system, packing hail and damaging winds, was headed east as storms rumbled through the Midwest and Plains during the region’s first widespread bout of severe weather.
The severe weather forced the cancellation of more than 850 flights at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and dozens of others at the city’s Midway International Airport.
The Weather Service in Davenport, Iowa, said it had received multiple reports of tornadoes in Scott and Clinton counties in the far eastern part of the state. At least one tornado had touched down earlier Thursday evening in rural Donahue, about 15 miles north of Davenport. The Weather Service had no reports of injuries from those storms.
Minor injuries were reported Thursday in central Missouri when storms toppled trees, utility poles and billboards.
The National Weather Service’s “enhanced risk” area stretched from northeast Texas to Michigan, Wisconsin and across the upper Midwest. Forecasters say Philadelphia, Washington and other parts of the Atlantic coast could see the same weather patterns Friday, including Augusta, Georgia, where the Masters golf tournament is taking place through the weekend.
“It’s quite an expansive area,” said Greg Carbin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
In central Indiana, a 75-year-old woman died Wednesday night after being swept into a rain-swollen creek near Indianapolis. Pittsboro Fire Chief Bill Zeunik said the woman, identified as Doris D. Martin, was clearing debris from a water-filled ditch in her front yard along with her husband when she fell in and was swept away into a drainage pipe. Martin’s body was found in a creek nearly a mile away.
In Wisconsin, an interstate north of Milwaukee was closed for several hours Thursday morning after several vehicles became partially submerged in flood water due to heavy rain.
In this Thursday, April 9, 2015 photo provided by the Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, Sheriff’s Office are vehicles that became partially submerged in flood water due to heavy rain in Port Washigton, Wisconsin.
AP
And in Michigan, lightning strikes caused a fire at a mobile home and a fire place explosion, according to authorities. No one was injured in either incident.
By mid-afternoon, temperatures in downtown St. Louis topped 80 degrees under bright sunshine. The balmy burst arrived in stark contrast to temperatures in parts of the northeast; freezing drizzle in New Hampshire delayed some school openings and more than 2 inches of snow postponed the first game of the season for the Portland Sea Dogs in Portland, Maine.
A LOOK AHEAD
Saturday: High pressure will build into the area, giving us mostly sunny skies. It will still be cool with highs near 60.
Sunday: Sun will be followed by late day clouds. Milder with highs in the upper 60s.
Monday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms return ahead of a cold front. Highs in the upper 60s.
Tuesday: Becoming mostly sunny. Breezy with highs in the middle to upper 60s.
Tornadoes Hit 3 US States, More Expected: Reports
Washington: Tornadoes hit parts of three midwestern US states of Iowa, Illinois and Ohio, in what forecasters from the National Weather Service warned was a “particularly dangerous situation”, media reported today.
People across the Midwest should be on alert for severe weather since the storms hit the region on Thursday, CNN quoted the weather agency as saying.
One person has died as a result of storms in Fairdale, Illinois, said a state emergency management spokeswoman.
According to officials, in Rochelle, Illinois, there were “multiple reports of injuries and damage”.
A video of the storm, uploaded on the video-sharing web site YouTube, showed a massive twister barrelling across an open field.
More tornadoes were later reported around Rockford — which is Illinois’ third largest city, about 85 miles northwest of Chicago — and near the Illinois community of Ashton, which also saw tennis ball-sized hail.
Eight tornadoes were reported on Wednesday in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, the Storm Prediction Center said.
Meanwhile, more storms are expected in the Midwest, Mississippi River Valley, Tennessee River Valley and near the southern Great Lakes.
One dead as tornadoes sweep through northern Illinois
A dangerous storm system rolled through the Midwest on Thursday evening, killing at least one person and leveling houses and businesses northwest of Chicago, local officials said.
One person was killed and at least seven people were injured in the tiny town of Fairdale, Illinois, located some 75 miles (120 km) from Chicago, according to local media, citing emergency officials.
Les Bellah, village president of nearby Kirkland, said that there was “extensive damage” to Fairdale, which has about 300 people. “I sent all our equipment there to help – backhoes, generators,” said Bellah.
Damage was also reported in and around Rochelle, Illinois, about 81 miles (130 km) west of Chicago, according to Rochelle Councilman Bill Hayes. The Red Cross opened a shelter in the town of about 10,000 people, and more than a dozen state agencies were providing help, according to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
“There’s some houses that have been completely destroyed,” Hayes said. He saw a tornado touch down while he was driving and raced off to warn people in its path.
Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle told reporters on Thursday night that his house, and the home of relatives living nearby, were among the roughly 20 in Rochelle that were destroyed or significantly damaged. He said no one was taken to the hospital or reported missing.
Roads were closed all around the area due to downed power lines, said Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Police Officer Phillip Wire, who was directing traffic near Rochelle.
Hayes said the popular Grubsteakers Restaurant in Rochelle was hit by the storm. People were rescued from the basement.
Fred McBride of Rochelle said he was working about half a mile from his house when the storm hit. He texted his family to “hit the basement.” Everyone in his home was safe, but windows were broken and a dozen downed trees littered his yard.
Nearly 900 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport and Chicago Midway International Airport because of the weather, the airport said.
Storm spotters reported two tornadoes each in Peoria and Lee, Illinois, along with twisters in Clinton and Scott, Iowa, according to the weather service.
The storm brought with it strong winds as well as golf ball- and baseball-sized hail in the Midwest and Northeast, the weather service said.
The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center is forecasting a risk of severe thunderstorms Friday afternoon and evening from southern Texas east along the Gulf Coast and northeast to the Mid-Atlantic states. Damaging winds and large hail are the main threats.
(Reporting by Bob Chiarito in Rochelle, Ill., Mary Wisniewski in Chicago and Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Sandra Maler, Eric Walsh, Ken Wills and Michael Perry)
Illinois town hit by tornado
Rochelle – At least one large tornado touched down in northern Illinois, killing one person and injuring seven others in a small community as severe weather pummelled the Midwest.
The system, packing hail and damaging winds, was headed east early Friday as storms rumbled through the Midwest and Plains during the region’s first widespread bout of severe weather.
The severe weather forced the cancellation on Thursday of more than 850 flights at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and dozens of others at the city’s Midway International Airport.
One person was killed in the tiny community of Fairdale, James Joseph with the Illinois Department of Emergency Management said.
Rockford fire department division chief Matthew Knott told ABC7-TV that at least seven people were injured. Knott says “every single” one of the approximately 50 structures in Fairdale has been damaged, and that “most” had been flattened.
He said emergency personnel were going house to house, sorting through debris and looking for other victims.
The National Weather Service tweeted around 19:00 that a tornado was on the ground in nearby Rochelle and urged residents to seek shelter immediately.
Robin Biggs, an employee at the Super 8 motel in Rochelle, which is about 128km west of Chicago, said she took video of the storm, which she said “took everything out in its path.”
Ogle county sheriff Brian Van Vickle said in a news conference that about 20 homes there were severely damaged or destroyed, but no deaths or significant injuries were reported.
Van Vickle said 12 people were trapped in the basement of Grubsteakers, a Rochelle restaurant that collapsed during the storm.
One of those rescued from the restaurant, Raymond Kramer, aged 81, told Chicago’s WLS-TV that he was trapped with 11 others in the storm cellar for 90 minutes. They were freed only after emergency crews removed debris that had fallen over them. He said none of those rescued was injured.
The Weather Service in Davenport, Iowa, said it had received multiple reports of tornadoes in the far eastern part of the state.
Small Illinois town flattened by massive tornado; 1 dead, 8 injured
A large tornado has touched down near the central Illinois community of Rochelle, and authorities say initial reports indicate it has caused significant damage.
One person was killed in Fairdale and at least eight people were reported injured by the storm.
Rockford Fire Department division chief Matthew Knott tells ABC7-TV that seven people were injured. Knott says “every single” one of the approximately 50 structures in Fairdale has been damaged.
He says “most” have been flattened.
A restaurant in Rochelle was completely demolished by the storm. First responders pulled people who were trapped out of the basement.”When I looked out the window and saw it, it was huge and coming right toward us and (they) grabbed me and said ‘Get to the basement!’ We didn’t see a whole lot,” said restaurant worker Melissa Jaime.
Twelve people were pulled to safety in all, each one just thankful to be alive.
“I’m in shock. I have no job and no car and I’m glad I’m alive, nobody injured, nobody injured…it’s just a shock,” Jaime said.
The same tornado reportedly caused damage at the Kraft Foods warehouse near Ashton. Several semis were blown off the interstate, as well.
Many homes in Rochelle and surrounding communities were heavily damaged as the storm moved off to the northeast.
Winnebago County Sheriff’s spokesman Ken DeCoster says funnel clouds also were spotted near Rockford, but did not touch down. However, television footage showed multiple homes damaged in the incorporated community of Fairdale.
Tornadoes were reported earlier Thursday near Peoria, and Dewitt, Iowa, but no damage was reported.
The strong storm front affecting the Midwest and Plains was moving east Thursday night.
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