Tornadoes level Illinois towns

A large severe weather system produced several tornadoes in Midwestern states such as Illinois, Indiana and Ohio on Thursday afternoon and evening, One town, Fairdale, in Illinois was effectively destroyed by what was preliminarily rated as an EF4 tornado, that killed at least one person. The same tornado also struck the small town of Rochelle in the northern part of the state. The Chicago metro area got hammered with strong storms, heavy winds as flooding, as did portions of northern Indiana and Ohio, eastern Missouri - particularly the St. Louis area - and southern Wisconsin and Michigan, The same system even dumped some snow and freezing rain onto small portions of Iowa, Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan. There were also reports of flooding in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, central West Virginia and extreme western Maryland. More than 100 severe thunderstorm, tornado and flood warnings were issued across the affected areas on Thursday. It was the country's first major severe weather event of the season.