ROCHELLE, ILL. — One person was killed and seven were injured in a tiny northern Illinois community after at least one large tornado touched down in the area, authorities said Thursday night.
One person was killed in the tiny community of Fairdale, said James Joseph of the Illinois Department of Emergency Management.
Rockford Fire Department division chief Matthew Knott said seven people were injured. Knott says “every single” one of the approximately 50 structures in Fairdale has been damaged.
He said most have been flattened.
Robin Biggs, an employee at a Super 8 motel in Rochelle, said “I have lived here 18 years, and I have never seen a tornado that big or stay on the ground that long.”
The system, packing hail and damaging winds, was headed east as storms rumbled through the Midwest and Plains during the region’s first widespread bout of severe weather.
