Heavy-rain warnings, flood watches canceled

Heavy storms feared for Wednesday night into Thursday morning appear to be steering south, so The National Weather Service has canceled its warnings.

A flash flood watch for Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties and other northern counties west of them has been canceled.

The heaviest storms are expected to hit along and south of Interstate 80. But it's saturation from previous storms that could create the flooding more than this latest round, the weather service suggests.

The storms are expected to dissipate and fade to the southeast on Thursday morning.

It would have been the second severe storm system to hit our area in a week.

The tornado that struck Coal City Monday night has been rated as an EF-3 with maximum winds of 160 mph. This twister was on the ground for 16.5 miles and is the strongest tornado in our area since the Plainfield twister back in 1990, says Phil Schwarz of ABC 7 Chicago.

The supercell that spawned this tornado was responsible for at least nine twisters, stretching from Whiteside County in Western Illinois to near Bourbonnais in Kankakee County.

Campers in Sublette, about 100 miles west of Chicago, were recovering Tuesday from the storm system that evening. Five people were hurt, and one was hospitalized with serious injuries. The National Weather Service confirmed it was an EF-2 tornado with winds between 111 mph and 135 mph.

Fire Chief Kevin Schultz said damage was worse than anticipated, spread across about 700 acres of the Woodhaven Association resort.

“At this point in time, the best words to describe it is decimated,” Schultz said Tuesday morning. “There are trailers that are in trees. There are trailers that are upside down. ... It is the worst thing I've ever seen.”

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner deployed the 80-member Illinois Task Force 1 search-and-rescue team to assist Tuesday morning and said at a news conference that he was concerned out-of-towners were hurt or trapped and wouldn't be reported missing.