Suspected tornado tears through Illinois town leaving widespread damage

Cleanup efforts are underway in Lena, Illinois, after a suspected tornado tore through the village on Friday (17 April), damaging homes, schools and infrastructure, leaving thousands without power. Residents and emergency crews spent Saturday clearing debris, and working around downed power lines.

Authorities said at least 16,000 customers across parts of western Illinois were affected by outages following the storm, according to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security.

Widespread damage

Homes in Lena sustained significant structural damage, with roofs torn off, decks destroyed and metal debris scattered across neighbourhoods. Several roads were blocked by fallen trees and storm debris.

“It lasted about nine minutes total. And it was devastating to our town. Fortunately, no one, no fatalities, no one died, which is absolutely fantastic,” said village trustee Tillie Coomber.

Local residents described extensive destruction across residential areas.

“He lost his deck, and there’s quite a few people that lost, a couple I heard, lost their homes. A lot of roofs and sheds are down, so it’s a mess,” said Tina Diddens, a local resident helping with cleanup efforts.

Impact on schools

Damage was also reported at Lena-Winslow Junior High School, where students described broken windows, structural damage and flooding inside facilities.

“A lot of windows were broken in our weight room. The awning that we have in front of the high school doors was ripped. The sign that we had was wrapped around a tree outside,” said student Kaiya Christensen.

She added that parts of the school were evacuated as the storm intensified.

School officials said the storm struck during an Illinois High School Association (IHSA) event being hosted in the area, forcing participants to shelter in place.

“Yesterday we were starting to host our IHSA organisational state contest and we had a few schools here already and we had to shelter in place when the storm hit,” said Renee Schultz, director of bands at Lena-Winslow School District.

Utility crews continued working to restore electricity and clear blocked roads as assessments of structural damage were carried out across the village.

Officials have not yet confirmed the final classification of the storm, though local authorities described it as a tornado.

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