Towns Suffer Brunt of Illinois- Indiana- Ohio and Michigan Tornado Outbreak

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center has accurately assessed early Saturday what would occur later that Saturday afternoon and evening: a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes from Iowa and Missouri- across Illinois into the eastern Great Lakes states.


By early Sunday morning- tornadoes had caused destruction in Illinois towns of Yates City- Brimfield-  Elmwood- Streator and Dwight and grazed bigger citites of Peoria and Kankakee.

Fortunately as of this report early Sunday morning- no fatalities have been reported- and no severe injuries either.


Elmwood IL- about 20 miles west-northwest of Peoria- was hit by a tornado sometime after 8 p.m.- according to a report from WGIL Radio in nearby Galeburg.

WGIL reports downtown buildings in Elmwood received structural damage- and gas leaks had forced evacuations of residents- but there were no injuries in the west-central Illinois town of about 2000 people.


The Streator IL tornado is reported in an earlier CSW story- after Streator was struck a tornado hit a mobile home park near Dwight- east of Streator

Again- only minor injuries reported- according to a news report from radio station WJEZ in nearby Pontiac IL..

A storm chaser picked up the tornadic supercell right after it struck Streator- then the trailer park in Dwight.

Illuminated by lightning flashes- the chaser caught the wall cloud and what appears to be a tornado in his YouTube video.

Two screen captures from the storm chaser's series of videos- this one in Kankakee county at video around the 0:13 second mark- clearly shows the impressive circular wall cloud and a funnel.

The situation is different in Ohio- where at least 5 people are dead as of early Sunday afternoon from tornadoes near Toledo.


WTOL-TV in Toledo reports a woman driving on a highway in northwestern Ohio was killed when her vehicle was blown off Route 795 south of Millbury.

West of there and just south of 795 on Cummings Road- another woman was killed in Lake Township trying to seek shelter near the police station.

That police station- and the Lake Township municipal complex that was only several years old- was virtually destroyed.


Less than a mile east- the Lake high school was heavily damaged. Graduation ceremonies were planned there today.

There was no immediate information on the third fatality- but 2 more were killed in Millbury.



There are as yet no reports on the number of injured in Ohio this Sunday morning.

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