A powerful tornado bore down an Illinois farm house in Washington. Several blocks of houses were destroyed in the area.
The Illinois National Guard dispatched firefighters and vehicles to help with search and recovery operations. Trees and power lines were down and the traffic signals were damaged. Even in metro Detroit, the power was knocked out for 459,000 people. Some people were temporarily trapped in a church.
In the Chicago area, the officials of Soldier Field ordered the Bears and Ravens off the field but the game was resumed after a two hour delay.
Meteorologists had predicted the violent storms days ahead of time but “weather doesn’t get more extreme than this in Illinois very often”, said Matt Friedlein, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
