Tornadoes that hit multiple places in Illinois Friday night claimed a total of four lives, with three others dying just across the Indiana border.
In Belvidere, in extreme Northern Illinois, part of the roof of the Apollo Theatre collapsed as about 260 people were attending a heavy metal concert. A 50-year-old man was pulled from the rubble.
“I sat with him and I held his hand and I was (telling him), ‘It’s going to be OK.’ I didn’t really know much else what to do,” concertgoer Gabrielle Lewellyn told WTVO-TV.
The man was dead by the time emergency workers arrived. Officials said 40 others were hurt, including two with life-threatening injuries.
On Saturday, crews were cleaning up around the Apollo, with forklifts pulling away loose bricks. Business owners picked up glass shards and covered shattered windows.
In Crawford County, in East Central Illinois, three people were killed and eight injured when a tornado hit around New Hebron, Bill Burke, the county board chair, said. The small town is near Robinson.
Sheriff Bill Rutan said 60 to 100 families were displaced.
“We’ve had emergency crews digging people out of their basements because the house is collapsed on top of them, but luckily they had that safe space to go to,” Rutan said at a news conference.
That tornado was not far from where three people died in Indiana’s Sullivan County, just across the Indiana border.
Sullivan Mayor Clint Lamb said at a news conference that an area south of the county seat of about 4,000 “is essentially unrecognizable right now” and that several people were rescued overnight. There were reports of as many as 12 people injured, he said.
“I’m really, really shocked there isn’t more as far as human issues,” he said, adding that recovery “is going to be a very long process.”
Damage from a late-night tornado is seen in Sullivan, Ind., Saturday, April 1, 2023. Multiple deaths were reported in the area following the storm. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)
