AT LEAST 5 TORNADOES TOUCH DOWN IN ILLINOIS

At least five tornadoes were reported in north central Illinois late Monday night, but there could be more, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). NWS crews are assessing damage in Will, Kankakee, Lee, Grundy and LaSalle counties.

DISASTER AREAS DECLARED

The first tornado was reported at 8 p.m. Monday; the last around midnight Tuesday. The towns of Coal City, Sublette and Mendota were among the hardest. NWS damage survey teams will be dispatched to those cities, as well as Harmon, Ottawa, Morris, Braidwood and Momence, to determine the number, intensity and path of the tornadoes.

About 17,200 ComEd customers are without power as of 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. Most of the outages are in Dixon, Sterling, Coal City and Joliet. At the height of the storm, more than 55,000 customers were in the dark. ComEd aims to have power restored to all customers by around 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Governor Bruce Rauner declared Grundy and Lee counties disaster areas on Tuesday and made state resources available to help tornado victims. He activated the State Emergency Operations Center Monday night to make crews and equipment available to help local emergency responders.

STORMS WIPES OUT CAMPGROUND

Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Schultz said damage to Woodhaven Lakes, a private, 1800-acre campground in Sublette, Ill., was worse than he anticipated. An 80-member search and rescue team is searching for people who may have been trapped.

"At this point in time, the best word to describe it is 'decimated.' There are trailers in trees. There are trailers upside down. We have liquefied petroleum gas that is in the trees. It is the worst thing I have ever seen," Schultz said.

Five people were injured during the storm, Schultz said.

"We did transport one person to the hospital and we have four walking wounded that were treated by the paramedics or EMTs at the scene and refused care," Schultz said.

Richard Bolin was camping at Woodhaven when the tornado struck.

"Total devastation. All my neighbors have trees down on all their campers. I got lucky. I have my boat and my camper here. Missed all of my stuff by inches. I drove down here from the Fairdale, Kirkland area because we just had a major tornado there. I wanted to see what it was like. It was exactly like that," Bolin said.

Woodhaven is closed to the public while officials search. Sublette, located in Lee County, is 100 miles west of Chicago.

COAL CITY HIT AGAIN

Around 10p.m. Monday, Coal City was struck by a tornado, the second in just under two years. The city of around 5,000 is located about 60 miles southwest of Chicago.

Wilmington Fire Protection District Deputy Chief Todd Friddle said five people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries overnight. There have been no reports of fatalities.

Many survivors were pulled from their basements, Friddle said, once rescue teams were able to get to them. A secondary search is scheduled for Tuesday to make sure everyone is accounted for.

Wilmington Fire is among 35 other agencies who responded to Coal City to help after the tornado touched down. Residents said they heard tornado sirens go off and took cover. Later, they heard a deafening roar as the twister moved overhead.

"I looked out the back door and stuff started blasting the house. So, I ran for the bathroom. I came out ten minutes later and... smashed," Matthew Richardson said.

"All the trees are down, all the power lines are gone. My neighbor's roof is gone. My cars are buried. Power lines are on my car. My wife's car is surrounded by 100-year-old oak trees. I lost probably five trees. My roof is leaking in three different places," Glenn Root said.

Coal City Village Administrator Matt Fritz said multiple subdivisions on the south side of town were damaged. Mayor Terry Halliday said the tornado formed near Coal City High School on the west side of town and moved southeast.

"It's eerily close to the damage we saw about a year and a half ago," Friddle added.

Fire Station No. 2 was struck by lightning during the storm, which caused a communications tower to fall on the building. But emergency crews were able to respond out of the station soon after the damage occurred.

I-55 near Reed Road was shut down for hours overnight because high tension power lines from the Braidwood nuclear plant were downed across the interstate. I-55 has since reopened.

Many of the roads leading into Coal City are blocked Tuesday morning because it is too dangerous to go in. Workers are walking through the rubble to assess damage. They said some buildings were wiped out entirely and there are natural gas leaks in many homes. Overhead wires are hanging low enough to connect with larger vehicles.

Friddle said many Coal City emergency workers' homes were damaged by the tornado, including that of the fire chief.

An emergency shelter was established at Coal City High School at 650 West Division Street for residents in need. The American Red Cross and United Methodist Church are coordinating efforts to help them.

Fritz said a hotline (815-518-3047) will be available around 9:30 a.m. to connect volunteers with affected residents. Volunteers will be welcome once the area is deemed safe.