Severe storms and tornadoes slammed the Midwest in the patt days, killing at least six people and injured dozens more as powerful winds destroyed homes and much of Washington, a small town Illinois, ABC News Radio reported. 81 reports of tornadoes went through at least five states in the Midwest. One tornado in New Minden, Illinois was estimated to have winds up to 200 miles-per-hour, ABC News Radio also repored.
In addition to the deaths, at least 37 people were also injured by the storms, with an expectation that the figure will rise significantly.
"The whole neighborhood's gone. The wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house," said Michael Perdun.
"I stepped outside and I heard it coming. My daughter was already in the basement, so I ran downstairs and grabbed her, crouched in the laundry room and all of a sudden I could see daylight up the stairway and my house was gone." Perdun lives in Washington, Illinois.
In the past week, storms hit other states, including Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky.
"I crawled into my kitchen and the whole roof came off. My table went sideways, my glass doors blew in, my house is devastated," Washington, Illinois resident Alicia Bachman told ABC News Radio.
The Illinois National Guard said it dispatched 10 firefighters and three vehicles to Washington to assist with "immediate search and recovery operations in the tornado damaged area," ABC News also reported.
The tornado that "ripped through Washington was part of a huge storm system that tore across Illinois around noon Sunday," news reports said.
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn declared a state of disaster in Champaign, Grundy, Massac, Tazwell, Washington, Woodfood and LaSalle, news reports said.
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