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Midwest tornadoes: Communities count cost as deadly storms head northeast
By M. Alex Johnson and Henry Austin NBC News

Communities reeling after a deadly storm system brought widespread destruction throughout the Midwest began to take stock of the damage early Monday.

At least six people died as a result of the severe weather system that wreaked havoc as it tore across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky Missouri and Ohio.

Father Timothy Mueller of the St. John’s Lutheran Church in New Minden, Ill. told TODAY that a twister ripped the steeple off his church just 10 minutes after mass finished.

"This has been rebuilt twice before in storms like this and, Lord willing, will be able to rebuild again,” he said.

An 80-year-old man and his 78-year-old sister were killed near the town according to Washington County Coroner Mark Styninger.

In the town of Washington Ill., Michael Perdun told The Associated Press that his neighborhood was wiped out in a matter of seconds.

"The whole neighborhood's gone. The wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house," he said by cellphone.

Chuck Phillips looks out at the destruction that tore off part of his roof and left houses around him destroyed after a tornado left a path of devastation through the north end of Pekin, Ill.

"I stepped outside and I heard it coming," Perdun added. "My daughter was already in the basement, so I ran downstairs and grabbed her, crouched in the laundry room and all of a sudden I could see daylight up the stairway and my house was gone."

Area hospitals were trying to set up a temporary emergency medical care facility in Washington, a small community of around 15,000 about 145 miles southwest of Chicago.

"The devastation is just unbelievable," Mayor Gary Manier told Reuters about the town where hundreds of homes were destroyed and one person died. "I can't imagine people walked away from these places."

The storm weakened as it headed into the Northeast early Monday, although gusts of up to 50 mph could cause power outages and disrupt airport travel according to Kevin Noth, a lead meteorologist at the Weather Channel said.
At least 50 patients in the emergency room at St. Francis Medical Center nearby were reported to be tornado-related, eight of them were trauma cases, according to Amy Paul, a spokeswoman for the hospital.

Two people were also confirmed to have died in Brookport, Ill., in Massac County near the Kentucky line and police with dogs were going door to door to search for trapped residents. With roads entering the city closed by debris and downed power lines, Brookport authorities imposed a 6 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew...

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