Tornadoes tear across Midwest America
A fast-moving storm results in multiple tornadoes across Midwest America, killing at least six people and flattening a part of Illinois.
Giant hailstones, the size of tennis balls bore down on the Midwest on Sunday leaving a path of destruction in its wake. The storm tore across ten US states and hundreds of thousands of people were left without power.
The storm moved dangerously fast, tracking eastward at 60 miles per hour (97 kph). Forecasters said that the majority of damage from the tornado took place over a period of about five hours.
It’s a sad day in Washington. The devastation is just unbelievable – Washington Mayor Gary Manier.
The storm also forced the Chicago Bears to halt their game against the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL fans at Soldier Field to seek shelter as menacing clouds rolled in. Chicago’s two major airports briefly stopped traffic while the metropolitan area was under a tornado watch.
The town of Washington, Illinois, 145 miles (233 km) southwest of Chicago, was hit especially hard by the tornadoes that forecasters said had ripped through Indiana and Kentucky as well as Illinois and a small corner of Ohio.
One person was killed in Washington town, two were killed in Washington county, and another three people were killed in Massac County, Illinois, on the Kentucky border where a tornado devastated several neighborhoods.
Residents in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois were left without power. A total of 80 tornado reports were received along with 358 reports of damaging winds and 40 reports of large hail, according to the storm prediction centre in Norman, Oklahoma.
Photo: a vehicle sits on a pile of debris from the destruction caused by a tornado that touched down in Washington, Illinois (Reuters)
‘The devastation is just unbelievable’
“It’s a sad day in Washington. The devastation is just unbelievable,” said the town’s Mayor Gary Manier. “I can’t imagine people walked away from these places. Some people were sitting in their living rooms. They stayed but their house left,” he later added.
Mr Manier said hundreds of homes had been destroyed in the town of 15,000 people.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed in the town of Washington, where State Police spokesman Dustin Pierce said there had been looting amid gas leaks and downed power lines.
The American Red Cross worked with emergency management officials to set up shelters and provide assistance to displaced residents, even as rescue workers searched for more people who might have been caught in the storm’s path.
Photo: emergency workers survey the damage on Elgin Avenue in Washington, Illinois after a tornado struck on 17 November (Getty)