More than a dozen tornadoes tore through towns across Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin overnight, shredding homes and tearing up trees and power lines.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.After videos posted to social media Thursday evening showed a massive funnel cloud approaching Streator, Illinois State Police reported “heavy damage” from a tornado that touched down in the city, which sits around 100 miles southwest of Chicago.“It sounded like a train was going through.
It blew my front window out,” Streator resident Kathy Spitznagle told NBC News on Thursday, adding that she took shelter in her bathroom when she received a tornado warning on her phone.Video filmed by a local journalist Thursday showed police pulling an injured man out of the rubble of his destroyed home, as he complained of a possible broken leg.No deaths had been reported in the city of around 12,000, Streator Mayor Tara Bedei said in a statement Friday.Eyewitness footage shows a tornado in Streator, Illinois, on Thursday.Nashyla Teamer / via ReutersDrone footage taken over the nearby village of Dwight showed the violent path of another tornado, with a number of homes seen partially or totally destroyed.Elsewhere, police in the city of Merrillville, Indiana, a town about 33 miles southeast of Chicago, warned residents to take cover as a funnel cloud approached.By Thursday evening, downed trees and power lines blocked the streets, homes were torn up and part of a high school’s roof was ripped off.
The town’s main road was also severely flooded, videos on social media showed.Enrique Lopez, the fire chief in the nearby city of Hobart, Indiana, said his crews had identified multiple homes that had been damaged by fallen trees, while also dealing with flooded roadways and power outages.Meanwhile, at Chicago’s Midway Airport, air traffic controllers were forced to evacuate the tower due to a tornado warning.
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