A fast-moving storm system triggers multiple tornadoes in the US Midwest, killing at least six people, injuring about 40 and flattening large parts of the city of Washington, Illinois.
Dozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms swept across the US Midwest on Sunday, killing at least six people, causing extensive damage in several Illinois communities and darkening downtown Chicago.
An elderly man and his sister were killed when a tornado hit their home, said coroner Mark Styninger. Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency confirmed three other deaths but did not provide details. The agency confirmed another death.
With communications difficult and many roads impassable, it remained unclear how
many people were killed or hurt by the unusually strong late-season tornadoes.
"The tornado took the house down," Long Point, Illinois resident Brian Tjaden said.
Another resident Sam Murphy said that the tornado "was gone within three or four minutes, and just, you can see what it's done here, just everything (was destroyed)."
State Police Trooper Dustin Pierce said the tornado cut a path from one end of the rural community of 16,000 to the other, knocking down power lines, uprooting trees and rupturing gas lines.
Just how many tornadoes hit was unclear. According to the National Weather Service's website, a total of 65 tornadoes struck, most of them in Illinois. But meteorologist Matt Friedlein said the total might fall because emergency workers, tornado spotters and others often report the same tornado.
The storm system was pushing into the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states on Sunday evening.
Matt Friedlein, a weather service meteorologist, said that such strong storms are rare this late in the year because there usually isn't enough heat from the sun to sustain the thunderstorms.
But he said temperatures on Sunday were expected to reach into the 60s and 70s Fahrenheit (from 16 to 26 degrees Celsius), which he said is warm enough to help produce severe weather when it is coupled with winds, which are typically stronger this time of year than in the summer.
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