Huge tornadoes tear through midwest US: 'This town is absolutely devastated'

Amateur footage shows a tornado in Illinois.

Several large tornadoes cut across the midwest on Thursday night, killing one person and injuring at least seven as towns near Chicago and Rockford, Illinois, were leveled.

A 67-year-old woman was found dead in her home in the tiny town of Fairdale, DeKalb County coroner Dennis Miller said early on Friday. At least seven people have been taken to area hospitals as well, Rockford fire officials said.

Many residents of the large area where tornadoes barreled through barns and trees were grateful to be unharmed, but some lost entire homes to the funnel.

Ogle County sheriff Brian VanVickle told reporters the tornado destroyed about 20 buildings, including his own home, and significantly damaged 50 to 100 more. Rockford fire chief Matt Knott said “essentially every structure has sustained some damage” in Fairdale, and added that some homes were “down to the slabs”.

“This town is absolutely devastated,” he said.

North of Rochelle, Illinois, a restaurant was ripped apart by the storm as patrons were eating inside, but despite the damage – the wind overturned a tractor trailer outside – none were seriously harmed. A dozen people hid in the basement as the restaurant collapsed above them, and then waited for 90 minutes before teams could free them.

“When the tornado hit, we all got a dust bath. Everyone in there got shattered with dust and debris falling out of the rafters,” one patron, Raymond Kramer, told Chicago’s ABC affiliate.

Several homes were destroyed in the Rochelle area as well, and a nearby zoo was severely damaged, with two animals killed. State emergency response teams joined local fire crews to look for trapped people, and the Salvation Army and Red Cross sent teams to assist.

Massive #tornado damage just outside my hometown, one confirmed dead #fairdaletornado pic.twitter.com/C3KwxAKN1O

— daney (@daneyvilla) April 10, 2015

The huge wedge tornado, a grey funnel, tore up trees and sent debris hurtling across fields and roads, sometimes into homes. It was accompanied by supercell thunderstorms that shot hail the size of tennis balls on to roads and residents. Much of the area was left without power.

Brion Jackson, whose home was struck by lightning and caught fire, told the local ABC affiliate the fire had caught him off guard: “I kept hearing a crackling sound in the walls and thought maybe it’s just one of those squirrels or raccoons, but it turned out the crackling was actually the fire started by the lightning up in the ceiling above where I was sleeping.”

Hail breaking a windshield in Kansas.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of a “particularly dangerous situation” before the storms on Thursday, and was thanked by several officials for the notice. State and national weather agencies said that over the past three days they had received reports of tornadoes in Illinois, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.

At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, only about 60 miles away from Fairdale, more than 850 flights were cancelled, as were dozens more at Midway International.

High quality image of Ashton, Illinois tornado this evening. #ilwx #tornado pic.twitter.com/oaGA9u4QMi

— Tom Purdy (@TomPurdyWI) April 10, 2015

Robin Biggs, an employee at a motel about 80 miles west of Chicago, said the storm “took everything out in its path”.

Tom Purdy witnessed the storm as it touched down in his nearby city of Ashton, Illinois, saying: “I have lived here 18 years and I have never seen a tornado that big or stay on the ground that long.”

A tornado on Wednesday in Deerhead, Kansas.

The NWS issued a warning of “enhanced risk” for a huge area, ranging from north-east Texas to Michigan, Wisconsin and the northern midwest. The agency’s meteorologists also predicted bad weather for the mid-Atlantic coast and a few north-eastern cities, including Philadelphia and Washington, as the system tracked east.

@23WIFR #tornado #rochelle pic.twitter.com/1VxO4UWgbu

— Klayton Koch (@kkoch03) April 10, 2015

• Reporting contributed by the Associated Press.