6 Killed After Tornadoes Touch Down In Illinois
By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 18, 2013 2:50PM
Thousands of Illinoisans are regrouping after Sunday’s heavy storms and unseasonable weather brought tornadoes to the area. Currently, six are dead in the aftermath of the storms. Congressman Aaron Schock, surveying the damage in Washington, Ill. (where one person was killed when a tornado touched down), said “I’m really surprised more people didn’t die.”
According to the National Weather Service the tornado that touched down in Washington was classified as an EF4, with winds between 166 and 200 mph. Mayor Gary Manier estimated between 200 and 250 homes were destroyed. “Everybody’s without power, but some people are without everything,” Manier told reporters. Manier added he wasn’t sure when residents would be able to return.
A tornado touched down in New Minden, Ill., 50 miles southeast of St. Louis, and killed an elderly man and his sister who took shelter in a farm house. Three people were killed in Massac County downstate and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has declared seven counties disaster areas. Tornadoes were also reported in Coal City. As many as 16 tornadoes were reported downstate.
In the Chicago area towns dealt with flooding and downed power lines and trees. The storms forced the evacuation of Soldier Field and the postponement of the Bears-Ravens game until mid-afternoon. Orland Fire Protection District Fire Chief Ken Brucki said residents in the suburb were more fortunate.
We skirted the major brunt of the storm. It was headed towards us but turned to the east before creating damage to our community. As of now, we are not seeing much damage. We are investigating wires down, trees down and power outages on 143rd Street between Wolf and West Avenue … but we have not received any reports to the OFPD of damage to any structures. “As a precaution, we were extremely prepared for this storm and tracked this for quite some time, called in additional dispatchers to handle a potential increase in calls from residents. We put up our backup dispatch center just in case there was an interruption of our communications so we could switch to our backup centers to keep our communications. “We also went into ‘Storm Mode in our dispatch center to put all of our equipment, vehicles and personnel on ready and radio communications so our notification is instant. It puts all of our on-duty personnel on an immediate notice in the event of putting out a call.