At least six died and entire neighborhoods were destroyed as a string of tornadoes swept across the Midwest Sunday, hitting Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky but concentrating the most damage on Illinois. Somewhere between 30 to 40 twisters, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center, likely occurred -- while the storms were rare for this late in the year, they were made possible by the warm weekend weather.
The New York Times reports on the worst of the damage:
At least six deaths were reported by early Monday morning. An 80-year-old man and his 78-year-old sister were killed when a tornado struck their farm outside New Minden, Ill., about 50 miles east of St. Louis. The man was found in a field about 100 yards from the home, and the woman was found under a pile of rubble, according to the Washington County coroner’s office.
A third person was killed in Washington, Ill., one of the hardest-hit towns, and three others were killed in Massac County in Southern Illinois, according to Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
...Dozens of people were also injured in the town, which has 15,000 residents and is about halfway between Chicago and St. Louis. At least 35 people were taken to a hospital with injuries, according to a statement from OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria. There was also extensive damage in the nearby city of Pekin, which has about 34,000 people.
Check out social media photos of the storms and their aftermath:
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