Several tornadoes tore through parts of Illinois and Indiana Tuesday, downing trees and power lines in an area south of Chicago and overwhelming the 911 center with emergency calls, according to officials.
A tornado struck down near the Kankakee fairgrounds, about 57 miles (91.7 kilometers) south of Chicago, before traveling northeast into Aroma Park, where it caused extensive damage, according to the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office. No injuries have been reported.
“I want to remind area residents to check on their neighbors and loved ones but to avoid unnecessary travel, if at all possible," Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey said in a statement.
In video shared on social media, the twister is seen ripping across a field of farmland near an airport while vehicles lined the road.
Severe storms dumping rain and hail in parts of the Midwest were threatening to bring intense tornadoes, damaging winds and very large hail from the southern Plains to the southern Great Lakes, according to the National Weather Service. States from Texas to Michigan were under tornado watches.
Several tornadoes formed across northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana, but the exact number won't be available until officials conduct damage surveys, said Andrew Lyons, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.
He described this as a fairly typical early Spring strong storm system. It is expected to continue to move east across parts of the mid-Atlantic and East Coast Wednesday, likely bringing more severe weather, he said.
More than 2 million Americans were at a moderate risk of severe weather in Illinois and Indiana. Nearly 22 million were at a slightly lesser risk in a zone that includes Chicago, Fort Worth, Texas, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Just over the Indiana state line, an apparent tornado hit several houses in Lake Village and caused injuries, according to Indiana State Police Cpl. Eric Rot.
He was not able to provide the number of people injured or their condition.
“We’re still in emergency response mode,” he said.
