— At least two homes were destroyed, more than 3,000 were without power and a possible tornado touched down at a uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Ky., on Sunday as strong storms moved through the state. No deaths or injuries were reported, and plant officials said no hazardous materials were released from the plant. 
 
 One home was destroyed and more than 200 homes lost power in Henderson County; and another house was destroyed in Butler County, Gary 'Buddy' Rogers, spokesman for the Kentucky Emergency Management agency, said in a news release. At least 3,000 customers lost power in Muhlenberg County, where there also were numerous trees down. Three homes and a church were damaged in McCracken County, Rogers said. 
 
 Also in McCracken County, what may have been a tornado touched down at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, damaging one of the plant's four enrichment production buildings, the adjacent cooling towers and nearby electrical switchyard, Georgann Lookofsky, a spokeswoman for the plant's parent company USEC Inc., said in a news release. 
 
 "Electrical power poles, wiring and other electrical circuits were also damaged," Lookofsky said, while the collars surrounding the fans on those cooling towers were destroyed. 
 
 Lookofsky said there were no reports of injuries and that monitoring of the plant showed "no radiological or hazardous material releases." 
 
 Lookofsky said USEC ceased enriching uranium at the plant in June, and only limited plant operations "related to inventory management" were operating when the storms hit. She said a recovery team was now focusing on cleanup and repair. 
 
 A total of eight counties reported tornado sightings, Rogers said: Butler, Edmondson, Henderson, Lyon, McCracken, Muhlenberg, Union and Warren Counties. ||||| As a powerful tornado bore down on their Illinois farmhouse, Curt Zehr's wife and adult son didn't have time to do anything but scramble down the stairs into their basement. 
 
 A neighborhood in the Devonshire subdivision of Washington, Ill., is left in ruins after a tornado tore through the northern part of the town on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Peoria Journal Star, Ron... (Associated Press) 
 
 Friends and neighbors comb the rubble of Curt Zehr's home just outside Washington, Ill., on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. Zehr's wife and adult son took shelter in the basement at the base of the pictured stairs... (Associated Press) 
 
 A fire truck and other vehicles lineup near what was left of Curt Zehr’s home about a mile northeast of Washington, Ill., on Sunday, Nov. 17. Intense thunderstorms spawning tornadoes swept across the... (Associated Press) 
 
 An overturned car rests on top of tree branches and other rubble near the destroyed home of Curt Zehr about a mile northeast of Washington, Ill., on Sunday, Nov. 17. Intense thunderstorms spawning tornadoes... (Associated Press) 
 
 Residents search through a neighborhood in Washington, Ill., after a tornado and strong thunderstorms swept through the north part of the town destroying several homes on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Peoria... (Associated Press) 
 
 A news cameraman shoots video of the rubble of an auto parts store destroyed by a tornado in Washington, Ill., on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. Illinois State Police says everal people were inside at the time... (Associated Press) 
 
 A man stands near a pickup that belonged to farmer Curt Zehr after a tornado blew through Zehr's farm on Sunday, Nov. 17. 2013. The farm destroyed Zehr's home just outside Washington, Ill., and caused... (Associated Press) 
 
 An overturned car sits in the parking lot near Rally's in Kokomo on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. (AP Photo / Kokomo Tribune, Kelly Lafferty) (Associated Press) 
 
 A young boy takes a break from helping comb the rubble of Curt Zehr's home just outside Washington, Ill., on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. Zehr's wife and adult son took shelter in their basement as a tornado... (Associated Press) 
 
 Residents embrace after they discovered their home was destroyed when a tornado and thunderstorms tore through a portion of Washington, Ill., on Sunday, Nov.17, 2013. (AP Photo/Peoria Journal Star, Ron... (Associated Press) 
 
 Uninjured, the pair looked out moments later to find the house gone and the sun out and "right on top" of them, Zehr said. The home on the outskirts of Washington, Ill., was swept up and scattered over hundreds of yards by one of the dozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms that swept across the Midwest on Sunday, leaving at least six people dead and unleashing powerful winds that flattened entire neighborhoods, flipped over cars and uprooted trees. 
 
 "They saw (the tornado) right there and got in the basement," said a stunned Zehr, pointing to the farm field near the rubble that had been his home. 
 
 Entire blocks in Washington were leveled. Other area towns were heavily damaged, too, and officials at Chicago's Soldier Field evacuated the stands and delayed the Bears-Baltimore Ravens game. 
 
 The wave of thunderstorms that brought the damaging winds and tornadoes affected 12 states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and western New York. 
 
 Bill Bunting, forecast operations chief of the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the storms were part of the same system and would be "moving rapidly to the east and continue east overnight and into the morning." 
 
 Illinois was struck the hardest by the unusually powerful late-season tornadoes. At least six were killed and dozens more injured, though with communications difficult and many roads impassable, it remained unclear how many people might be hurt or whether the death toll would continue to climb. 
 
 An elderly man and his sister were killed when a tornado hit their home in the rural southern Illinois community of New Minden, coroner Mark Styninger said. A third person died in Washington, while three others perished in Massac County in the far southern part of the state, said Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. She did not provide details. 
 
 Washington, a town of 16,000 about 140 miles southwest of Chicago, appeared to have the most severe damage. The tornado cut a path about an eighth of a mile wide from one side of town to the other, State Trooper Dustin Pierce said. 
 
 Across farm fields a little more than a mile from where Zehr's home was swept up, several blocks of homes in one neighborhood were destroyed. 
 
 "The whole neighborhood's gone. The wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house," said Michael Perdun, speaking by cellphone. 
 
 The Illinois National Guard said it had dispatched 10 firefighters and three vehicles to Washington to assist with immediate search and recovery operations. 
 
 As law enforcement officers continued to search for victims and sized up the cleanup and rebuilding job ahead, they kept everyone but residents and emergency workers out. With power off and lines down in many areas, natural gas lines leaking and trees and other debris blocking many streets, an overnight curfew kept all but emergency vehicles off pitch-black roads. The only lights visible across most of Washington on Sunday night were red and blue flashes from police and fire truck lights. 
 
 Still, by nightfall Trooper Pierce said there were reports of looting around town. 
 
 As Zehr worked with about 75 friends and neighbors to try to salvage anything from his home _ dining room chairs and other odds and ends _ he said he'd been at church while his wife, Sue, and son were at home when the tornado hit. They had homeowners' insurance, which he said he hoped was good. 
 
 "We're about to find out," he said. 
 
 A friend, Keith Noe, said the Zehr family still felt fortunate. 
 
 "They both walked out of the basement and that's what counts," Noe said. 
 
 Across Washington, an auto parts store with several people inside was reduced to a pile of bricks, metal and rebar; a battered car, its windshield impaled by a piece of lumber, was flung alongside it. 
 
 "The employees were climbing out of this," Pierce said, gesturing to the rubble behind him. None of them was seriously injured, he said. 
 
 At OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in nearby Peoria, spokeswoman Amy Paul said 37 patients had been treated, eight with injuries ranging from broken bones to head injuries. Another hospital, Methodist Medical Center in Peoria, treated more than a dozen, but officials there said none of them were seriously injured. 
 
 About 90 minutes after the tornado destroyed homes in Washington, the stormy weather darkened downtown Chicago. As the rain and high winds slammed into the area, officials at Soldier Field evacuated the stands and ordered the Bears and Baltimore Ravens off the field. Fans were allowed back to their seats shortly after 2 p.m., and the game resumed after about a two-hour delay. 
 
 Earlier, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications had issued a warning to fans, urging them "to take extra precautions and ... appropriate measures to ensure their personal safety." 
 
 Just how many tornadoes hit was unclear. Although about 80 reports of tornadoes had come in as of Sunday night, the National Weather Service's Bunting said the actual number will likely be in the 30 to 40 range. He said that's because the same tornado often gets reported multiple times. 
 
 The White House issued a statement saying President Barack Obama had been briefed about the damage and was in touch with federal, state and local officials. 
 
 Weather service meteorologist Matt Friedlein said that such strong storms are rare this late in the year because there usually isn't enough heat from the sun to sustain the thunderstorms. But he said temperatures Sunday were expected to reach into the 60s and 70s, which he said is warm enough to help produce severe weather when it is coupled with winds, which are typically stronger this time of year than in the summer. 
 
 "You don't need temperatures in the 80s and 90s to produce severe weather (because) the strong winds compensate for the lack of heating," Friedlein said. "That sets the stage for what we call wind shear, which may produce tornadoes." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Babwin reported from Chicago. Associated Press writers Sophia Tareen and Andale Gross in Chicago, Ken Kusmer and Tom LoBianco in Indianapolis, Ed White in Detroit and Amy Forliti in Minneapolis contributed to this report. ||||| Rare and violent autumn storms ripped across Illinois on Sunday, spinning off tornadoes before slamming into Chicago with punishing rain and wind.As heavy gusts toppled trees and power lines and downpours swamped city streets, tens of thousands of Bears fans were evacuated from their Soldier Field seats and forced to take cover inside or huddle behind the historic stone colonnades.Earlier, in southern Illinois, severe weather decimated farms, killing at least five people, including an elderly brother and sister, when a tornado barreled through their house. Farther north, near Peoria, a tornado flattened large swaths of Washington, killing at least one person and sending about 50 others to local hospitals.As night fell and temperatures dropped, emergency workers were still searching debris fields that had once been neighborhoods and the homeless were seeking temporary shelter.Meteorologists had predicted the violent storms days ahead of time, anticipating volatile atmospheric conditions that are freakish for a season when tornadoes are a relative rarity. “Weather doesn't get more extreme than this in Illinois very often,” said Matt Friedlein, a National Weather Service meteorologist.The storms exploded over Illinois when gusting winter jet streams from the northwest collided with the unusually warm and moist air that had arrived Saturday.“You've got wintertime winds in the atmosphere above summertime moisture,” Friedlein said. “While unusual, when that happens, you're going to have very strong storms that move very quickly.”At Soldier Field, Bears fans scattered for cover under roiling skies as the game was postponed because of the threat of lightning. Though rains and high winds battered the city, temporarily closing some streets, officials received no reports of weather-related injuries, said Melissa Stratton, spokeswoman with the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications.As of Sunday evening, crews were working to clear streets, removing some 170 tree branches or fallen trees and clearing out about 40 flooded viaducts. The Department of Water Management also received 27 calls of flooded basements, Stratton said.Across Cook County, officials were reporting relatively minor damage. Sophia Ansari, Cook County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman, said a motorist was stuck under 4 feet of water in Palos Township, near Orland Park. No injuries had been reported as of Sunday evening, Ansari said.In Lake County, trees and power lines were down, and some traffic signals were damaged, said an official with the Lake County Sheriff's Office.Will County officials, meanwhile, said homes were damaged and there were reports of a tornado touchdown in Diamond near Interstate 55. The storm caused “significant property damage” to a local bar and a nearby church.Charles Pelkie, information officer for the Will County Emergency Management Agency, said some people were temporarily trapped in the church. But they were quickly rescued, and none had significant injuries, he said.“I-55 was a mess,” Pelkie said. “There were wires down — trees, debris blocking the road.”In Grundy County, a powerful tornado touched down in Coal City with possible wind speeds of 111 to 135 mph, the National Weather Service confirmed.Washington and Pekin, communities about 20 miles apart, near Peoria, appeared to sustain the worst tornado damage in central Illinois. Whole blocks were leveled in Washington, prompting the Illinois National Guard to send a 10-person firefighting and search and rescue team, and officials were still trying to determine the extent of injuries Sunday evening.“I was hiding in the bathroom with pillows over my head,” said Karla Riter, who lives in Sunnydale Estates in the city. “When I opened the door, my roof was gone.”The Illinois Emergency Management Agency confirmed that at least one person had died in the area. No other details were immediately available.Kristen Johnson, a spokeswoman for St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, said the hospital had treated victims with head injuries, broken bones, cuts and bruises. Eight went to the trauma unit, though two had since been moved and their status was unknown.“We anticipate the worst is over,” Johnson said.Sara Sparkman, a spokeswoman with the Tazewell County Emergency Management Agency, credited the county's early warning system for reducing the toll. “We hope that contributed to the low injuries that we are having,” she said.In southern Illinois, a tornado ravaged Washington County about 12:30 p.m., obliterating farms and livestock and killing Joseph Hoy, 80, and his sister Frances Hoy, 78, Washington County Coroner Mark Styninger said.Joseph Hoy's body was found in a field about 100 yards east of his farmhouse. His sister's body was found inside the home beneath debris, he said.“(Joseph Hoy's) house was blown away by a tornado,” said Styninger, who knew the siblings personally. “They were just very nice people.”Tribune reporters Bonnie Miller Rubin, Michelle Manchir, Geoff Ziezulewicz, Joseph Ryan, George Knue and Cynthia Dizikes contributed. 
 
 chicagobreaking@tribune.com | Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking ||||| Severe storms moved through the Midwest on Sunday, leveling towns, killing at least six people in Illinois and injuring dozens more, and causing thousands of power failures across the region. 
 
 Officials warned of a fast-moving, deadly storm system on Sunday morning and issued tornado watches throughout the day for wide areas of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. By the time the storm had passed on Sunday evening, tornadoes — scores of them, according to the National Weather Service — had left paths of destruction. 
 
 Homes were leveled and trees shredded in Washington, Ill., and nearby farms were turned upside down, with farm equipment dotting the landscape. 
 
 Weather officials were uncertain just how many confirmed tornadoes might have hit the region. But as of Sunday evening, the National Weather Service website listed reports of at least 77 — most of them in Illinois — although officials cautioned that in some cases there may have been multiple reports on the same storm. 
 
 At least six deaths were reported by early Monday morning. An 80-year-old man and his 78-year-old sister were killed when a tornado struck their farm outside New Minden, Ill., about 50 miles east of St. Louis. The man was found in a field about 100 yards from the home, and the woman was found under a pile of rubble, according to the Washington County coroner’s office. 
 
 A third person was killed in Washington, Ill., one of the hardest-hit towns, and three others were killed in Massac County in Southern Illinois, according to Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. The details of the deaths were not available late Sunday. 
 
 Dozens of people were also injured in the town, which has 15,000 residents and is about halfway between Chicago and St. Louis. At least 35 people were taken to a hospital with injuries, according to a statement from OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria. There was also extensive damage in the nearby city of Pekin, which has about 34,000 people. 
 
 In Indiana, tornadoes and storm damage were reported in 12 counties, according to Gov. Mike Pence. In Missouri, the utility company Ameren reported that more than 35,000 customers had lost power, mostly in the St. Louis area. 
 
 Officials said a tornado also struck Coal City, Ill., about 60 miles southwest of Chicago. At least 100 buildings there were damaged and at least four people were injured, according to local media reports. 
 
 Storms also caused extensive damage in East Peoria, officials said. 
 
 Members of the Illinois National Guard and other emergency rescue teams were sent to the towns to help with search and recovery operations. Whole neighborhoods in Washington were destroyed, according to Tyler Gee, an alderman on the City Council. 
 
 “I went over there immediately after the tornado, walking through the neighborhoods, and I couldn’t even tell what street I was on,” Mr. Gee told the radio station WBBM in Chicago. “It just completely flattened some of the neighborhoods here in town, hundreds of homes.” 
 
 Photographs from the town showed overturned cars and piles of debris where homes once stood. The National Guard also sent 10 firefighters and three vehicles to Washington, and the American Red Cross in central Illinois sent volunteers to set up shelters and distribute water and food. 
 
 Washington town officials implemented an overnight curfew on Sunday starting at 6 p.m., said Ms. Arnold of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Officials were worried about safety because of the debris and downed power lines, she said. 
 
 There were several shelters for evacuees, she said, including one at the Crossroads United Methodist Church in Washington. 
 
 In Roanoke, Ill., about 15 miles east of Washington, one family was at church on Sunday when a tornado hit their farm. Tony Johnson of Germantown Hills said he arrived at his niece’s farm about 30 minutes after the tornado passed and found that it had destroyed everything in its path. His niece and her husband and three children were not home when the storm hit, he said. 
 
 “The house is gone, everything is leveled,” Mr. Johnson said in a telephone interview. “There is nothing that is usable. Their trucks were tossed around like toys.” 
 
 Soon, neighbors started arriving to help the family sift through the rubble, he said. 
 
 “You get that in the heartland for sure,” he said. “There were probably 100 people there to help — it was just amazing.” 
 
 On Sunday evening, officials were still trying to assess the damage. Telephone lines in the most devastated towns were not working, making it difficult to get more information, said Patti Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. 
 
 Thunderstorms and strong winds also caused problems in Chicago, disrupting power and hundreds of flights and delaying a National Football League game. 
 
 Fans attending the afternoon football game at Soldier Field were asked to leave the stands and take shelter during the first quarter of the Bears’ game against the Baltimore Ravens. The game was suspended for almost two hours before play resumed, and the Bears finished with a victory. 
 
 More than 230 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport because of the weather, and many other flights were delayed. Flights were also delayed at Midway Airport in Chicago. 
 
 Wind gusts reached as high as 75 miles per hour in the Chicago area, according to the National Weather Service. 
 
 The storm caused widespread power failures in Chicago and nearby suburbs. There were at least 89,000 reported losses of power in Northern Illinois, according to ComEd, the utility company that serves the city. ||||| Washington, Illinois (CNN) -- Steve Bucher knew something was ominous about the weather. 
 
 "The sky was just rumbling for 20 minutes," Bucher said on CNN's "New Day," on Monday, the day after a devastating tornado outbreak destroyed his Washington, Illinois, home and dozens of others in several Midwestern states. "I told my wife I've just never heard anything like this in my life." 
 
 Soon, she was begging him to go downstairs into their basement. 
 
 "Within 30 seconds, the house was literally vibrating from the direct hit of this funnel cloud," Bucher said. 
 
 "Next thing we know, things are cracking, and glass breaking and furniture came around the corner, missed us even though it came down the hallway where we were," he said. 
 
 "I think my attitude was in the next minute and a half, we're either going to be in heaven, we're going to be in the hospital or we're going to walk out of here. Completely in the Lord's hands which one of those three things was going to happen," he said. 
 
 How to help 
 
 The storm took most of his house down to the decking over his walk-out basement, but neither he nor his wife was hurt. 
 
 "Everything else is rebuildable," Bucher said. "I couldn't replace her." 
 
 The storm that destroyed Bucher's home was part of a multi-state outbreak of tornadoes and powerful winds Sunday that caused damage in several states, including Missouri, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. 
 
 Six people died in Illinois and two men were killed in Michigan, according to authorities. As many as 200 people were injured through Illinois, officials said. Some 120 of those injuries came in Washington, said Jon Monken, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Seven of those injuries were "traumatic," Monken said. 
 
 The storm destroyed or seriously damaged as many as 400 homes in Washington alone, Gov. Pat Quinn told reporters Monday. 
 
 Damage was also reported in the adjacent northern Illinois towns of Diamond and Coal City, in Champaign County in central Illinois, in southern Illinois' Washington County and in Massac County -- in the extreme southern tip of the state. 
 
 Incredible footage of the tornado in Washington, Illinois 
 
 Quinn declared seven counties a state disaster area, including Tazewell County, just east of Peoria in central Illinois, where a tornado left parts of Washington in ruins and one person dead. 
 
 "Devastation. Sadness. People that lost everything," is how Washington Mayor Gary Manier described the scene to CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day." 
 
 Another tornado in Washington County, Illinois, east of St. Louis, left a path of debris that stretched more than three miles, according to a preliminary survey by the National Weather Service. 
 
 While the bulk of the storm system had moved offshore into the Atlantic Ocean and the threat of severe weather Monday was small, damaging wind gusts of up to 40 mph were still possible in parts of the Northeast, CNN meteorologist Indra Petersons said Monday morning. In the Great Lakes region, 50 mph gusts were possible, she said. 
 
 Hundreds of thousands of people remained without power. 
 
 CNN affiliate WTVG: Storm leaves trail of damage 
 
 'Complete destruction' 
 
 The storm struck the town of Washington around 11 a.m. Sunday, when many of its 10,000 residents were at church. 
 
 That's where Curt Zehr was when cell phones started chirping out storm alerts and the congregation headed to the basement. His wife and son, Mike, were at home. Zehr's wife texted to say they'd seen the tornado hit Washington, about a mile to the south. 
 
 "Then, about five minutes later, she texted me and said the house is gone," Zehr told CNN. "I said, 'Whose house?' " She said, 'Our house.' " 
 
 Mike Zehr said it wasn't long after they saw the storm hit Washington that they realized it was headed straight for them. 
 
 They took to the basement and within a few minutes, Mike Zehr said, the house exploded with the loudest sound he's ever heard. 
 
 "The next thing we know, it's completely quiet and the sun's just shining through the stairs in the basement," he said. 
 
 And their house was gone. 
 
 Dozens of others had similar experiences. 
 
 "It was complete destruction," resident CNN iReporter Anthony Khoury, who filmed the tornado tearing through his neighborhood, said Sunday. "There are people in the streets crying." 
 
 Resident Michelle Crumrine said the winds swept her home and everything in it clean away. 
 
 "A lot of people have a pile of rubble still, and I don't have anything," she said. "It's gone. I don't know where it went." 
 
 On Monday, a National Weather Service survey team confirmed the storm had winds of 170 mph to 190 mph, producing EF-4 damage, the agency said. Earlier, the weather service had said such a confirmation would make the tornado the most powerful November twister in the state since at least 1950. 
 
 CNN affiliate KTVI: 2 killed in New Minden, Illinois 
 
 Damage elsewhere 
 
 In Washington County, the county coroner's office identified two dead there as 80-year-old Joseph Hoy and his 78-year-old sister, Frances. They died when a tornado obliterated their family farm in New Minden, the office said. 
 
 A 51-year-old man was killed in the town of Washington. Steve Neubauer was found near his home, Tazewell County officials said. 
 
 Three other deaths happened in Massac County, across the Ohio River from Paducah, Kentucky. Authorities identified the storm victims as Kathy George, 58, Robert Harmon, 56, and Scholitta Burrus, 63. 
 
 In Perry, Michigan, a 59-year-old man was found dead, tangled in live power lines. Phillip Smith's wife reported him missing after he didn't return after going out after the storm passed. Officials said a 21-year-old man was killed Sunday in Jackson County, but didn't release his name. 
 
 Brutal winds also flipped over at least six trucks on highways about 80 miles west of Chicago, the Ogle County Sheriff's Office said. 
 
 Officials in Missouri and Indiana were also dealing with storm damage. 
 
 In Missouri, state emergency officials said a tornado may have hit Scott County, where heavy winds overturned three rail cars and blew over four mobile homes. 
 
 And the mayor of Kokomo, Indiana, declared a state of emergency and closed schools Monday. While the state of emergency was set to be lifted at 6 a.m., "unnecessary travel in the affected areas is still prohibited," city officials tweeted. 
 
 There, the roof of a building sat in the middle of a road. A car rested on the mountain of rubble from a leveled home. 
 
 At least 600,000 customers in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan were without power as of Monday afternoon, officials said. Some outages in southwest Michigan may not be fixed until the weekend. 
 
 Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is scheduled to tour the storm damage Monday. 
 
 Soldier Field, O'Hare affected 
 
 Officials delayed the NFL game between the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Ravens for almost two hours as storms approached Chicago, warning spectators to leave the stands at Soldier Field and head for covered areas. 
 
 "The rain started coming, the skies got black, the wind was insane, and they evacuated us to underneath the concrete concourse," said Jim Arnold, who was at the game with his 11-year-old daughter. 
 
 "We've been through 15-degree-below weather and winds, but never anything like this," Arnold said. "The winds gusted at 70 mph, and the winds and the rain were horizontal and everybody was running. It was just crazy." 
 
 After the storm passed, fans returned to their seats and the game resumed 
 
 Thousands of travelers scheduled to fly through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport also had to grapple with the storm. More than 270 flights were canceled Sunday, and delays overnight stretched for an hour or more. 
 
 Unusual outbreak 
 
 Sunday's storms accounted for more than half of the tornado warnings issued in Illinois since 1986, the National Weather Service said Monday. 
 
 CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis said the storms came later in the year than some might have expected. 
 
 "The primary time for tornadoes, as we well know, is springtime. Then we see a second high that comes in the fall," she said. "Is this late? It is rather late, because the temperatures have been very warm." 
 
 "On the backside of that, temperatures are dramatically cooler. So that cold air is filtering in behind it, warm air out ahead of it," she said. "And ... we get some twisting motion in the atmosphere. And that's why we see this tornadic activity." 
 
 CNN affiliate WGN: City takes direct hit from tornado 
 
 CNN's Ted Rowlands reported from Washington, Illinois. CNN's Holly Yan and Michael Pearson reported from Atlanta. CNN's Chuck Johnston, Catherine E. Shoichet, Shawn Nottingham, Joe Sutton, George Howell, Steve Almasy, Sean Morris, Dave Alsup, Jareen Imam, David Ruff, Taylor Ward, Janet DiGiacomo, Todd Borek and Rick Martin contributed to this report. ||||| An unusually large and strong late-season storm system ripped through several states across the Midwest on Sunday, spawning tornadoes and tearing through homes and overturning cars along its path. Here's a snapshot of what happened, state by state: 
 
 Jerry Smith, manager of BMO Harris Bank at Lincoln and Washington Streets watches over the bank till security arrived on scene in Kokomo, Ind., on November 17, 2013. (AP Photo / Kokomo Tribune, Tm Bath) (Associated Press) 
 
 A resident of Washington, Ill., surveys the damage to her home and neighbors after a tornado and severe thunderstorms swept through a portion of the town on Sunday, Oct. 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Peoria Journal... (Associated Press) 
 
 Paul Tubbs of Washington, Ill., looks over the remains of his home on Devon Lane in Washington after a tornado tore through the north part of Washington on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Peoria Journal... (Associated Press) 
 
 ILLINOIS 
 
 Intense thunderstorms and tornadoes ripped off roofs and sent trees toppling in several communities across the state. At least six people were killed, including, an elderly man and his sister who died when a tornado struck their farmhouse in rural New Minden in southern Illinois, officials said. 
 
 One of the worst-hit areas was Washington, a town of 16,000 about 140 miles southwest of Chicago. Entire blocks were leveled as a tornado cut a path about an eighth of a mile wide from one side of town to the other. 
 
 As high winds slammed into the Chicago area, officials at Soldier Field evacuated the stands and ordered the Bears and Ravens off the field. Fans were allowed back to their seats shortly after 2 p.m., and the game resumed after about a two-hour delay. 
 
 INDIANA 
 
 Severe thunderstorms packing tornadoes and heavy winds rolled across Indiana, injuring several people and causing widespread damage. 
 
 Gov. Mike Pence said 12 counties reported either tornadoes or storm damage after the initial line of storms had traveled midway across Indiana. 
 
 Kokomo police asked residents to stay home and off the streets after city officials declared a state of emergency in the wake of severe storms. The city police department posted photos on its Twitter account showing buildings with roofs torn off and a destroyed bank branch. 
 
 OHIO 
 
 Heavy winds from storms caused damage to buildings and left tens of thousands across Ohio without power. 
 
 Wood County, in the northwestern part of the state, was among the hardest-hit areas. There were multiple reports of damage to the roofs of buildings and homes. 
 
 The county's emergency management director, Brad Gilbert, said two people were taken to a hospital to be evaluated for minor injuries after their home sustained substantial damage in Jerry City, about 10 miles southeast of Bowling Green. 
 
 Thousands of customers were without power across northwest Ohio due to the storm. 
 
 WISCONSIN 
 
 Strong winds knocked out power to thousands in the Milwaukee area, damaged buildings and downed trees in Dodge County, and sent churchgoers scrambling into church basements for safety. 
 
 In the town of Hustisford, cattle sheds, garages and storage sheds were damaged, said Dodge County Emergency Management Director Joseph Meagher. No injuries were immediately reported, he said. 
 
 MICHIGAN 
 
 High winds and rain slammed into Michigan, causing tens of thousands of power outages. The storm hit from Lake Michigan communities in the west to counties hundreds of miles to the east. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but trees and power lines snapped from winds topping 60 mph. 
 
 KENTUCKY 
 
 A possible tornado touched down at a uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Ky., as strong storms moved through the state. No deaths or injuries were reported, and plant officials said no hazardous materials were released from the plant. 
 
 A total of eight Kentucky counties reported tornado sightings. 
 
 At least two homes were destroyed _ one in Henderson County and another in Butler County. More than 3,000 customers lost power. 
 
 MISSOURI 
 
 Severe storms slammed the eastern part of Missouri, leaving thousands without power mostly in the St. Louis area and destroying a mobile home in Scott County. No one was injured. 
 
 The National Weather Service said the storm tore shingles off roofs and uprooted trees across parts of St. Louis and St. Louis County.
– The extent of destruction is still unknown after scores of tornadoes ripped through the Midwest yesterday, killing at least six people and decimating entire neighborhoods in the hardest-hit towns in Illinois. The National Weather Service says the tornadoes were spawned by an unusually strong and fast-moving storm system that moved east this morning after hitting 12 Midwestern states. A look at the latest: The Illinois National Guard has sent firefighters to the town of Washington, where a tornado ripped a path about an eighth of a mile wide from one side of town to the other, the AP reports. Whole blocks were destroyed and dozens of people were injured in the town of 16,000, which lies about 140 miles south of Chicago. It's not clear just how many tornadoes were involved in the destruction, which lasted around five hours. The National Weather Service has reports of 81 tornadoes, mostly in Illinois, but some may have been counted twice. Hundreds of thousands have been left without power in states including Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, reports CNN. The American Red Cross has set up emergency shelters for thousands of people made homeless by the storms, and teams have begun the search for people who may be trapped in debris. A possible tornado hit a uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Ky., damaging one building, reports the AP. But a spokesman said that there no was no sign of "radiological or hazardous material releases." The late-season severe weather was caused by winter jet streams hitting unusually warm air, experts say. "You've got wintertime winds in the atmosphere above summertime moisture," a National Weather Service meteorologist tells the Chicago Tribune. "While unusual, when that happens, you're going to have very strong storms that move very quickly." Amid the destruction, neighbors are helping neighbors, the New York Times finds. A central Illinois man says his niece and her family were at church when a tornado completely destroyed their farm, tossing their trucks around like toys. But soon after the storm passed, neighbors arrived to help the family find their belongings in the ruins. "You get that in the heartland for sure," he says. "There were probably 100 people there to help—it was just amazing." Click for the AP's state-by-state breakdown of damage.