Six people have been killed and scores of homes destroyed after at least 60 tornadoes and intense thunderstorms swept across the American Midwest yesterday.
States of emergency have been issued for seven Illinois counties in the wake of a series of powerful tornadoes that blew flipped over cars and uprooted trees.
Dozens of people were injured in the unusually powerful, late-season tornadoes. Three people were killed in Massac County, two in Washington County and one person died in the city of Washington, Tazewell County.
There are fears that some residents are still trapped inside their collapsed homes.
The National Weather Service confirmed preliminary EF-4 tornado damage in Washington County in southern Illinois, with winds of 166 to 200 miles per hour.
The storms moved dangerously fast, tracking east at 60 miles per hour, with most damage caused within just five hours.
In two communities, including the Illinois town of Washington, population 15,000, one of the estimated 60 twisters smashed through and destroyed at least 70 homes.
Dozens of injured residents were rushed to nearby Peoria, Illinois, for medical treatment as rescuers continued to scour leveled neighborhoods in search of survivors trapped beneath debris.
'It was complete destruction,' Anthony Khoury, who lives in Washington, told CNN. 'There are people in the streets crying.'
Khoury said that all he could do was pray as he watched a tornado touch down and heard toward his home.
'The tornado happened in my backyard, and you can hear people screaming,' he told CNN. 'We were freaking out.'
Khoury and his home managed to survive the storm.
Read More: Daily Mail
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