Suspected Tornado Outbreak Leaves Damage Across Kankakee, IL, and Lake Village, IN, Reports NWS

CHICAGO (WLS) — Severe weather struck Kankakee County, Illinois, and extended into Indiana on Tuesday, with suspected tornadoes causing significant damage.

The National Weather Service reported hailstones measuring between two to four inches during the storms. Remarkably, a six-inch hailstone, potentially a state record for Illinois, was recorded in Kankakee.

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According to the NWS, a supercell storm tracked from Pontiac, Illinois, to Pontiac, Indiana, resulting in at least four tornadoes affecting areas such as Pontiac and south of Kankakee in Illinois, as well as Lake Village and Wheatfield in Indiana.

On Wednesday, the NWS plans to dispatch survey teams to assess the extent of the damage caused by these storms.

As severe weather ravaged the Kankakee area, search teams worked late into the night to locate individuals possibly trapped by the destruction.

Among the hardest-hit locations was the Aroma Park area along Sandbar Road.

Dangerous weather ripped through the area leaving a path of destruction.

The powerful storms driving rain and gusting winds downed at least a half dozen power lines that were snapped in half by gusting winds.

One homeowner says the storm blew out windows and leveled a two-story barn.

A concrete silo was also destroyed.

The fire lieutenant says a man did have to be rescued from the basement of a home with heavy damage. But otherwise, I have not heard of any serious injuries from the storm.

The American Red Cross has set up a shelter at Kankakee Community College for those impacted by the storms.

There has also been major damage across the state line in Indiana. Most of the damage is in the town of Lake Village.

Video shows a number of homes and buildings destroyed.

The local fire department says a tornado had a wide path of destruction and continued for several miles.

So far, officials said there have been only a few minor injuries.

They said the tornado sirens went off with plenty of time to alert people in the area.

People impacted by the storm can go to North Newton High School for support.

People living in Kankakee described the hail as almost as large as their hands, pounding the pavement and causing extensive damage.

“As if I have a bulletproof car and somebody was, like, shooting a machine gun or something like that. That’s how hard it was hitting,” Jon Robicheaux said.

Some car windows were left shattered.

“It just kept tearing into my front windshield,” Robicheaux said. “The back went out first, and it kept hitting the front. And it constantly got damaged.”

He had to pull over to find shelter.

“And I was kind of scared a tornado would’ve came over me while I was parked because I couldn’t see anything,” Robicheaux said.

Some cars in the west suburbs were damaged, as well, after golf ball- to baseball-sized hail fell.

One large chunk of hail came down on Gabrielle Zinkel’s car as she was driving home to Homer Glen from work in Downers Grove, shattering her back windshield.

“It sounded exactly like bullets hitting your car. Like, I was like, did my windshield just get shot through? Like what just happened? Because I did not think. I was like, OK, I’m going to come through this with some dents. But I didn’t think that this thing would hit my windshield and crack it right open,” Zinkel said.

There was also heavy rain and hail in parts of the city.

The hail sent people scrambling around dusk.

ComEd said as of 5 a.m., about 27,000 customers were impacted by the storm, with power restored to all but about 4,000 customers. Those without power were mainly in Kankakee County.

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