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Al Jazeera America
As a powerful tornado bore down on their Illinois farmhouse, Curt Zehr's wife and adult son didn't have time to do anything but scramble down the stairs into their basement.Uninjured, the pair looked out moments later to find the house gone and the sun out "right on top" of them, Zehr said. Their home, on the outskirts of Washington, Ill., was swept up and scattered over hundreds of yards by one of the dozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms that swept across the Midwest on Sunday, leaving at least six people dead and unleashing powerful winds that flattened entire neighborhoods, flipped over cars and uprooted trees.
Early Monday, Washington Mayor Gary Manier estimated that from 250 to 500 homes were either damaged or destroyed in the storm and that it wasn't clear when residents would be allowed to return.
"Everybody's without power, but some people are without everything," Manier told reporters in the parking lot of a destroyed auto parts store and near a row of flattened homes.
"How people survived is beyond me," he said.
The powerful late-season wave of thunderstorms brought damaging winds and tornadoes to 12 states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and western New York.
Illinois was the hardest struck with at least six people killed and dozens more injured
LA Times
Much of Washington Ill., was in ruins Monday, one of the worst hit areas ravaged by tornadoes that left a path of at least six dead and sizable destruction across several Midwest states.Hundreds of thousands of people, most in Michigan, remained without electricity. Roads had flooded and were being slowly restored while thousands of people had sought shelter with relatives or in shelters after the wave of late-season storms, including more than 80 tornadoes, tore through parts of at least 12 states. Beginning Sunday morning, fierce winds and heavy rainfall hit Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and western New York.
The worst was over by Monday morning and the fast-moving storm front quickly moved eastward out to the Atlantic Ocean, leaving destruction, death and at least 54 injuries in its wake.
NY Times
PEKIN, Ill. — On Monday morning, the day after tornadoes caused widespread destruction across parts of this state, Gary and Selena Cleer were looking for what was left.The Cleers were in church on Sunday when a tornado swept through their town, a dozen miles south of Peoria, and took shelter with the congregation in a hallway. When they drove back to the home they had lived in for only 18 months, Mr. Cleer said, “we didn’t even recognize our house.” Much of the roof was gone, and the garage had been torn way, their battered car sitting amid rubble.
The severe storms that moved through the Midwest on Sunday leveled towns, killed at least six people in Illinois and injured dozens more, and caused power failures for hundreds of thousands of people.
Huffington Post
WASHINGTON, Ill. (AP) — As a powerful tornado bore down on their Illinois farmhouse, Curt Zehr's wife and adult son didn't have time to do anything but scramble down the stairs into their basement.Uninjured, the pair looked out moments later to find the house gone and the sun out "right on top" of them, Zehr said. Their home, on the outskirts of Washington, Ill., was swept up and scattered over hundreds of yards by one of the dozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms that swept across the Midwest on Sunday, leaving at least six people dead and unleashing powerful winds that flattened entire neighborhoods, flipped over cars and uprooted trees.
"They saw (the tornado) right there and got in the basement," said a stunned Zehr, pointing to the farm field near the rubble that had been his home.