According to the National Weather Service there have been 36 direct fatalities and 1800 homes destroyed in Oklahoma due to recent tornadoes.
The April 27 tornado was also the 118th tornado to strike the Oklahoma City area since 1890. Total damage was estimated at $1 billion.
Storms also swept across Southern Illinois May 8, but the damage here was less severe this time.
According to Local 6 ,“members of the small community of Walnut Grove in Illinois came out in full force to help neighbors whose homes were damaged by the severe weather outbreak on Wednesday.”
“At my house we had some trees get knocked down in my yard. My trampoline blew away as well as some damage to my actual yard,” junior Hallie Boggess said.
Some residents only suffered damage to the trees in their yard, while other’s homes were lifted off their foundations.
According to Local 6 , Clark Horton and his son Aaron Horton were affected by this tornado with many trees being uprooted around their home and their home sustaining serious damage as it seems that it was lifted off of its foundation, as well as his truck which a tree fell on top of.
Riley King was home with his sister, aunt, and uncle as the awful storms passed through, his uncle witnessed a tree fall nearly striking their home and that was when they headed to the basement.
Walnut Grove was not the only community to get damage from the bad weather. In Eldorado, Illinois the Ferrell Hospital flooded.
“We had a high volume of rain come down in a short period of time,” CEO Tony Keen said in an interview with Local 6 . “It overwhelmed the draining systems here in the area, which created a flooding situation inside the hospital.”
The hospital typically has around 17 patients, but on Wednesday there were only six who had to be evacuated.
“We estimate about 70,000 square feet of flooring was impacted by the flooding,” Keen said. “It was a significant event, not only in our emergency department, but in our lobby, our patient registration area, and our clinic space.”
There was also damage to the Eagle River Coal Mine about 5 miles outside of Harrisburg.
