Several communities in IL were cleaning up wreckage on Thursday following a series of tornadoes that destroyed homes, smashed vehicles and trapped residents a night earlier, weather officials said.
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Powerful storms could bring hurricane-force winds, tornadoes and golf ball-sized hail to parts of the Midwest on Wednesday, including the Chicago area. Damaging winds are then expected across northern IN, southern MI and western Ohio. According to the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, VA, trees were uprooted or snapped by the tornado.
The National Weather Service reported that the EF0 tornado touched down just southwest of Lisbon and continued towards the southeast, lifting just before Ellicott City. As of 7 a.m., only about 2,400 customers remained without power.
The National Weather Service has determined that the Wednesday night tornado that struck Pontiac and injured four people was an EF-2, with winds peaking between 115 and 125 miles per hour.
In addition to the tornadoes, damaging winds were also reported with a semi blown over near Princeton in Bureau County and numerous trees blown over and cornfields flattened due to strong wind gusts.
There were only minor injuries reported, although a couple had been temporarily trapped inside one of the homes. The National Weather Service reported hail the size of golf balls in McKenzie County, the size of tennis balls in New Town and the size of baseballs in New England, North Dakota.
He says storms produced winds in excess of 80 miles per hour elsewhere in north-central and northwestern in and heavy rainfall caused flooding in Thorntown in Boone County northwest of Indianapolis. A number of areas were placed under Tornado Watch just after 6 p. m including Livingston, Ford, Iroquois, Will, Kakakee, Grundy and Kendall counties in IL and Benton, Newton, Jasper, Porter and Lake counties in Indiana.
The Northern Indiana Public Service said it had increased staffing at its customer call centre and scheduled extra work crews.
One homeowner says he huddled in a basement with his wife, two children and seven neighbors when a storm that produced a tornado moved into the northern IL village of Seneca. “But there’s a lot of damage”, Maierhofer told WLS-TV.
The NWS said survey crews will be dispatched to review damage along three separate super cell paths, including Pontiac to Chatsworth.
At least four tornadoes touched down in northern IL overnight as powerful storms swept across the upper Midwest, damaging rural communities and forcing thousands of soccer fans to seek shelter during the Copa America semifinal in Chicago.
In nearby Serena, Nate Hermann said he drove his pickup truck around 10 square miles and found farmland “wiped out everywhere”.
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A gas station canopy lays on its side Thursday, June 23, 2016, in Pontiac, Ill., after it was damaged Wednesday night by a tornado.
