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In Kankakee, Illinois, and northwest Indiana, violent storms spawned tornadoes that claimed the lives of two individuals and caused extensive destruction, as reported by officials on Wednesday. The region braced itself for another wave of severe weather, which included rain, hail, and powerful winds.
The day before, a series of potent supercell thunderstorms swept through northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana. According to the National Weather Service in Chicago, these storms were responsible for producing at least four tornadoes.
Tragically, the Newton County Coroner’s office confirmed the deaths of Edward L. Kozlowski, 89, and his wife Arlene Kozlowski, 84, following a tornado that struck their residence in Lake Village, Indiana. The coroner’s office indicated that blunt force trauma was the likely cause of death, with an autopsy scheduled for Friday.
Steve Rehfeldt, their son-in-law, shared fond memories with CBS News in Chicago, describing them as “wonderful, just really wonderful human beings,” highlighting the toughness of Edward and the sweetness of Arlene.
The couple’s legacy includes four children, seven grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren, all of whom mourn their loss.
The storms shattered windows, tore off roofs and smashed vehicles in Kankakee, Illinois. Wood planks and other debris littered yards, streets and parking lots. A landscape and garden center was seriously damaged, some parts completely destroyed.
Storms also dropped 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) of rain and left piles of hail in the Grand Rapids area in western Michigan, said Alex Manion, a weather service meteorologist in Detroit. Streets flooded, swamping cars with water above their doors in some places.
The weather service said crews were determining the strength and number of tornadoes, and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio remained under a tornado watch Wednesday.
Suspected tornadoes last week killed four people in southwestern Michigan and two in eastern Oklahoma.
A tornado leaves a small Indiana community in tatters
In Lake Village, where the Kozlowskis died, crews rescued some people who were trapped in damaged homes. At least 70 utility poles were knocked down and many roads were rendered unpassable, Newton County officials said.
“Please do not come here. Do not try to help right now,” Sheriff Shannon Cothran said in a video shot in front of a destroyed home.
Laurie Postma, a spokesperson for the Lake Township Volunteer Fire Department, said the storm injured less than 10 people in Lake Village. Cothran said no other significant injuries had been reported but search and rescue operations were continuing.
Lake Village is about 60 miles (95 kilometers) southeast of Chicago and 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Kankakee.
Resident says not all warning sirens sounded
David Ferris of Lake Village said he, his wife, and their dogs “rode it out in our downstairs bathtub.” They were unscathed, except for losing power. Ferris, who is a paramedic, helped rescue and treat injured people.
“We had another house where a guy crawled out,” Ferris said. “He was having some trouble breathing because he was covered in house insulation.”
Ferris said a Family Dollar store and a gas station were destroyed, and multiple large trees were uprooted.
Newlywed Cassidy Sinwelski, 23, said she and her husband were aware of the tornado watch in their Lake Village neighborhood and were expecting a run-of-the-mill storm until her husband spotted dark clouds barreling toward them.
“We went into the bathroom, got a piece of plywood and within minutes, I closed my eyes, the lights flickered, and we just — there was nothing,” Sinwelski said.
Then she heard loud rumbles and the sound of shattering glass.
“I just kept crying out for God, because I didn’t know what else to do,” she said.
Jennifer Telford, 49, said she hid in her basement in Lake Village while she followed news reports of the storm. She did not hear the tornado, which struck to the south, but heard the hail pelting her roof.
“The siren in town didn’t go off,” she said. “The sirens outside town did.”
The power was back on in the morning at the truck stop where she works, but elsewhere, “everything is closed due to the downed trees and power lines.”
About 4,300 customers in Lake Village and surrounding communities were without power late Wednesday morning, down from more than 11,000 at the peak of the storm, the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. reported.
Giant hailstones pelted an Illinois community
In Kankakee, the storms produced exceptionally large hail, ranging from 3 to 5 inches (7.6 to 12.7 centimeters) in diameter. One 6-inch (15.2-centimeter) hailstone may have set a new state record, the weather service said.
A tornado touched down near the fairgrounds before traveling northeast into the small suburb of Aroma Park, where it caused extensive damage, the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office said.
Nine people in the county had minor injuries, officials said at a news conference. Kevin Birk, a meteorologist in the NWS Chicago office, confirmed at least one tornado touched down in the area.
The storm shattered a longtime garden center’s spring plans
Tholens’ Garden Center on the south side of Kankakee was hit hard by the tornado, owner Nancy Tholen said.
“We have multiple buildings, and lots of them are destroyed,” Tholen said. “This is our 50th year in business, and this was not how we planned to kick off our spring.”
Workers had just left for the day when the tornado hit Tuesday afternoon, she said. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
“You know, we make our living in the next 12 weeks,” Tholen said. “We’ll figure something out to open, but it’s just … it’s crazy. But again, everybody’s safe, so we’re thankful for that.”
In Aroma Park, just southeast of Kankakee, restaurateur and village trustee Kathleen Slavin watched the destruction of the tornado and “baseball-sized hail” from the village hall, where she attended a village board meeting.
“It took down trees that are probably over a hundred years old, huge trees came down. It took out main power lines,” Slavin said.
Her friend, 69-year-old Ruth Denoyer, swept up glass after the tornado blew out her windows.
“It took our whole garage down, our pool, we have broken windows in the house, glass everywhere.” Denoyer said. “But we still have a roof, unlike some people out here.”
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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press journalists Hallie Golden in Seattle; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois; and AP video journalist Laura Bargfeld in Lake Village, Indiana, contributed.
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This story has been updated to correct that Cassidy Sinwelski lives in Lake Village, Indiana, and Bargfeld reported from Lake Village, not Kankakee, Illinois.