Massive #tornado damage just outside my hometown, one confirmed dead #fairdaletornado pic.twitter.com/C3KwxAKN1O  Brion Jackson, whose home was struck by lightning and caught fire, told the local ABC affiliate the fire had caught him off guard: “I kept hearing a crackling sound in the walls and thought maybe it’s just one of those squirrels or raccoons, but it turned out the crackling was actually the fire started by the lightning up in the ceiling above where I was sleeping.”  The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of a “particularly dangerous situation” before the storms on Thursday, and was thanked by several officials for the notice. State and national weather agencies said that over the past three days they had received reports of tornadoes in Illinois, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.  At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, only about 60 miles away from Fairdale, more than 850 flights were cancelled, as were dozens more at Midway International.  High quality image of Ashton, Illinois tornado this evening. #ilwx #tornado pic.twitter.com/oaGA9u4QMi  Robin Biggs, an employee at a motel about 80 miles west of Chicago, said the storm “took everything out in its path”.  Tom Purdy witnessed the storm as it touched down in his nearby city of Ashton, Illinois, saying: “I have lived here 18 years and I have never seen a tornado that big or stay on the ground that long.”  The NWS issued a warning of “enhanced risk” for a huge area, ranging from north-east Texas to Michigan, Wisconsin and the northern midwest. The agency’s meteorologists also predicted bad weather for the mid-Atlantic coast and a few north-eastern cities, including Philadelphia and Washington, as the system tracked east.
One woman found dead and at least seven people hospitalised.Weather service issues a warning of ‘enhanced risk’ for other areas in region