Illinois Tornadoes Leave One Dead, Several Injured

April 10—Rescue crews are waiting for daylight Friday to resume wading through the wreckage left by at least two tornadoes that tore through north central Illinois Thursday evening, leaving one woman dead and several others injured.

The small community of Fairdale, Ill., which is located just south of Rockford, was most devasted by the storm. A 67-year-old woman was killed in her home during the storm, according to the DeKalb County Coroner.

At least 11 others were transported to area hospitals for treatment, according to Kirkland Community Fire District Chief Chad Connell. Officials are planning a press conference there for 8 a.m. Friday.

Rochelle, Ill., another small community about 20 miles southwest of Fairdale, was also in the path of Thursday's tornado.

About 6:30 a.m. Friday, authorities were preparing for an aerial sweep of the area to complete their third search for anyone who might be injured or trapped, said Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle. So far, no residents in the county had been reported missing. Thirty homes in the area had been destroyed, VanVickle said.

Rochelle and Ogle County have not reported any fatalities due to the storm. Three people were transported by ambulance to Rochelle Hospital for treatment, but those injuries are not life-threatening, VanVickle said.

The Red Cross was on scene to provide assistance, but VanVickle said no one had requested housing as of Friday morning, something he said that speaks to the close-knit community.

"It's a small, rural community, so everyone's probably staying with a friend or with family," VanVickle said.

In Fairdale, rescue crews worked throughout the night sifting through the rubble. Speaking to reporters just after midnight, Rockford Fire Department Matthew Knott said every home in Fairdale had been searched twice to ensure no one was missed. Every single home was affected by the storm, officials said, with some crushed down to their foundation and others left standing with no damage except broken windows.

Knott described the twister that touched down in Fairdale at 7:15 p.m. Thursday as a powerful but slow-moving tornado, but its scientific strength was not known early Friday.

DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott said several people left the area before the storm hit, so authorities were still working to locate some residents.

"Fairdale is pretty well destroyed from what I understand," said Les Bellah, village president of nearby Kirkland, Ill., where the Red Cross was helping storm victims.

The worst tornado damage was reported on either side of Interstate 39 near Rochelle, Ill. The storm blew on a northeast track across farms and small towns as it headed toward McHenry County. A dispatcher with the McHenry County Sheriff's Office said the agency received several reports of tornadoes in the area of Woodstock. However, there were no reports of damage.

The storms led Gov. Bruce Rauner to activate the State Incident Response Center in Springfield to ensure that state personnel and equipment were ready to be deployed.

National Weather Service reported at least a 50-mile swath of area with intermittent tornado damage.

The weather service is reporting at the "very least" two tornadoes but likely more touched down in the area, based on trained storm spotters, radar and environmental evidence. The weather service was deploying three teams to the area to survey the damage and track the paths of the tornadoes. That survey could last into Saturday.

The deadly tornado left a path of destruction from near Franklin Grove in Lee County to North of Rochelle and Hillcrest into northwest DeKalb County and southern Boone County and lastly to near Harvard in McHenry County, according to the weather service. A second tornado's path stretched from near Rockford Airport into Cherry Valley in Winnebago County and then crossed into Boone County.

Just before 7 p.m., a tornado hit a Crest Foods warehouse in Ashton, Ill., causing the roof to collapse, according to the Franklin Grove Fire Protection District.

A short time later, fire crews from multiple jurisdictions responded to Grubsteakers Restaurant near Illinois Routes 251 and 64 in Rochelle after the building reportedly was hit by a tornado.

About a dozen people were inside the restaurant, and firefighters rescued five people trapped beneath rubble about 8:30 p.m., according to Randy Travis, assistant chief of Oregon Fire Protection District.

"It's pretty much leveled," Travis said of the restaurant.

Several homes in the Rochelle area were seriously damaged, including that of Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle, Travis said.

Late Thursday, authorities had blocked off roads into Fairdale, a town of about 200. Siding from homes hung from power lines and trees across the area. Officials said a bus from Northern Illinois University was used to take Fairdale residents to safety. The Rockford Fire Department was assisting in the rescue effort.

Fairdale resident Susan Meyer, 67, said she was upstairs getting ready to watch television when she saw weather reports about what was coming. But she thought the storm was going to the north. A friend called and said it looked serious, so Meyer went outside and laid down a ladder so it wouldn't blow over.

When she went back upstairs, her home's windows exploded behind her, she said.

"I just hunkered down. I figured I was either going to live or I was going to die, so I might as well just stay where I was," she said.

After 30 seconds it was over, and she looked around and saw that her entire upstairs had collapsed into her living room, she said. The north wall of her home also was gone.

"It's by the grace of God that I was in the stairwell," she said.

Her two-story home was more than 100 years old and had just undergone a $50,000 renovation.

"It's gone," she said.

Another resident, Patrick Burgess, 48, also lost his home. Sitting in drenched clothes aboard the NIU bus, Burgess said hail fell before the tornado hit. He saw a cloud start to swirl.

"I looked up and seen the cloud get dark, purple, black, blue," he said.

He and others, including an elderly woman and her grandchild, fled to his basement. Burgess said he lay on top of them as the house was shredded above. He said it was all over in a matter of seconds.

"It wasn't nothing like I heard about on TV," he said.

DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott said many of the people whose homes were destroyed had found shelter with friends and family in the area, but the remainder were being taken to the Kirkland Fire Protection District, where the Red Cross has set up operations.

The weather service said it is believed there were at least two tornadoes. A trained weather spotter saw a tornado touch down Thursday evening near Cherry Valley. Another tornado was spotted moments later near Ashton, south of Rockford. The weather service characterized the tornado as "large and extremely dangerous."

An hour or so after storms hit north central Illinois, most of the activity was in the far northwest suburbs across McHenry County, said Kevin Birk, a meteorologist with the weather service. But by late Thursday, authorities said the potential for a tornado had dissipated.

The weather service will be doing damage assessments Friday to inspect possible touchdown locations and paths of travel and to collect other information.

The tornadoes came at the end of a long day of heavy weather. An earlier storm brought winds of 35 mph and heavy rainfall to the Chicago area. More than 700 flights were canceled Thursday at Chicago's airports, and more than 1,400 were delayed.

The weather service issued a flood warning for the Des Plaines River at Riverside from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening. Minor flooding is forecast for Friday evening and expected to subside by Saturday afternoon, according to the warning.

National Weather Service meteorologists reported the touchdown of a weak tornado just north of Peoria about 2:30 p.m., Birk said.

Tornadoes were reported Wednesday and early Thursday in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, but those areas saw minimal damage.