Tornadoes kill 1, decimate small town of Fairdale on Route 72
Supercell thunderstorms produced a large tornado that touched down Thursday night in northern 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 ABC 7 Chicago "every single" one of the approximately 50 structures in Fairdale has been damaged and that "most" had been flattened.
The National Weather Service tweeted around 7 p.m. that a tornado was on the ground in nearby Rochelle, on Route 72 west of Kane County, and urged residents to seek shelter immediately.
Severe thunderstorms blew through Lake and McHenry counties after the tornadoes were reported touching down farther west. A tornado watch was in effect for most of the night covering all of the suburbs and most of north and central Illinois.
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Robin Biggs, an employee at the Super 8 motel in Rochelle, which is about 80 miles west of Chicago, said she took video of the storm, which she said "took everything out in its path."
"I have lived here 18 years and I have never seen a tornado that big or stay on the ground that long. ... This just stayed down and went all the way across the horizon," she said.
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.
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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, 81, told ABC 7 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.
Kramer said he and his wife pulled over at Grubsteakers just moments before the tornado struck. He said he was taking photos of the storm from the doorway when the restaurant owner ordered everyone into the storm cellar.
"No sooner did we get down there, when it hit the building and laid a whole metal wall on top of the doors where we went into the storm cellar," Kramer said. "When the tornado hit, we all got a dust bath. Everyone in there got shattered with dust and debris falling out of the rafters."
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Todd Aves, who owns a dairy farm on Pearl Street Road in Boone County, around 5 miles south of Belvidere, lost several buildings and had two trucks damaged by a tornado. Nobody was injured.
"About 7 we could see some dark clouds over to the west," Aves said. "When they got about a quarter-mile away, it was obvious we had three funnel clouds headed right our way."
"They got about 500 feet away and two of them split off and kind of dissipated, and the other one looked like it was going to come right down the driveway."
"So we headed down to the basement for about 10 minutes. ... We come out outside and we're missing three buildings."
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 multiple counties, sporadically touching down and causing damage.
Earlier it said the tornadoes originated near Ashton, just southwest of Rochelle, and moved along a 50-mile path northeast to Marengo, according to Gino Izzi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
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Izzi said radar indicated there was one long-track tornado, staying on the ground for at least 15 miles, and several medium-length tornadoes, though the weather service will be doing formal damage surveys today. Tornadoes were also seen near Marengo.
Winnebago County sheriff's spokesman Ken DeCoster said funnel clouds also were spotted near Rockford, a few miles north, but did not touch down.
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 O'Hare International Airport and dozens of others at Midway International Airport.
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.
Daily Herald staff writers Christopher Placek and Paul Valade contributed to this report.
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