OTTAWA, Ill. — A northern Illinois man has died after being struck by a tree during powerful a Midwestern storm, raising the state’s toll to three.
Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood says 31-year-old David A. Johnson of Ottawa was pronounced dead Wednesday afternoon at a Peoria hospital. The coroner says Johnson died of severe head trauma.
Harwood says Johnson was working in a backyard with his spouse and father-in-law Tuesday when the storm uprooted a tree that landed on all three. Johnson’s 76-year-old father-in-law, Wayne Tuntland, died at the scene. Johnson’s spouse was treated and released from a hospital.
Seventy-one-year-old Thomas McCord also died Tuesday when an apparent tornado struck a building in Crossville, in southern Illinois.
The tornado in Ottawa was one of at least seven that appeared to touch down statewide, state officials said.
The National Weather Service in Romeoville surveyed the damage caused by three separate tornadoes so far. An EF-3 tornado, with peak winds at 155 mph, traveled about 11 miles across Naplate and Ottawa. In Oregon, an EF-1 tornado traveled about a mile and a half with wind speeds reaching about 95 mph. Another EF-1 tornado touched down in Ottawa with a top windspeed of 110 mph and traveled about a mile an a half.
The EF scale estimates the tornado’s wind speeds based on the damage caused, according to Jamie Enderlen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The scale ranges from 0, with low wind speeds, to 5, with strong wind speeds.
In Missouri, a 24-year-old man also died when a tornado hit his vehicle along Interstate 55.
