CHICAGO — Strong storms that swept across northern Illinois spawned at least four tornadoes, severely damaged homes and forced first responders to pull survivors from basements, officials said Tuesday.
At least four tornadoes also hit parts of Michigan late Monday into early Tuesday, while possible tornadoes came through northern Indiana and Iowa. The storms knocked out power to thousands of people, but by Tuesday morning, the skies had cleared and the rain had moved east.
Particularly hard hit on Monday night was a private camping resort in Sublette, Ill., a community about 100 miles west of Chicago. 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 on 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.
About 70 miles southeast of the camping resort, another confirmed EF-2 tornado raked Coal City at about 10 p.m. Monday and damaged several subdivisions. Authorities said five people suffered minor injuries and everyone was accounted for in the city of about 5,000 people, but crews planned to conduct another search Tuesday.
Debra Burla, 59, and her husband sheltered in an underground crawlspace on their 100-year-old farm, but the wind nearly sucked her out of it, she said.
“I kept crawling to the middle (of the crawlspace) … because I was sitting right by the opening of it, said Burla, whose farm was heavily damaged.
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency was gathering information on the extent of the storm damage in the area. Rauner also issued a state disaster proclamation for Lee and Grundy counties to make state resources available for recovery.
“It’s a miracle, frankly, when you see the devastation that there were no deaths and no life-threatening injuries,” Rauner said.
To the west, an estimated 40 to 50 Hy-Vee store employees and customers in the southern Iowa town of Albia took shelter in the store cooler when the storm struck Monday evening, shattering store windows and sending glass flying into a nearby neighborhood. Homes in the area lost roofs and windows as well.
In Michigan, a series of severe thunderstorms damaged homes and caused power outages. More than 50 homes as well as church and other buildings were damaged by a tornado Monday in Portland, about 25 miles northwest of Lansing. And the National Weather Service said one tornado hit about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday near Manchester, southwest of Ann Arbor.
