[November 18, 2013]      

Intense thunderstorms and tornadoes swept across the Midwest, causing fatalities, injuries and extensive damage in several central Illinois communities, and even prompting officials at Chicago's Soldier Field to evacuate the stands and delay the Bears game.

In central Illinois, the town of Washington appeared to be particularly hard-hit, with one resident saying his neighborhood was wiped out in a matter of seconds by a tornado.

"I stepped outside and I heard it coming. 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," Michael Perdun said in an interview on his cellphone with The Associated Press.

A resident of Washington, Ill., surveys the damage to her home and neighbors' homes after a tornado and severe thunderstorms swept through a portion of the town on Sunday.
(AP photo/Peoria Journal Star, Ron Johnson)

A news cameraman shoots video of the rubble of an auto parts store destroyed by a tornado in Washington on Sunday. Illinois State Police said several people were inside at the time the tornado hit,  but all escaped uninjured. The tornado cut a path of destruction through the town.  (AP photo/David Mercer)

 

A fire truck and other vehicles line up near what was left of Curt Zehr’s home about a mile northeast of Washington on Sunday.  (AP photo/David Mercer)

Washington homeowners and friends try to salvage items from homes along Devonshire Street on the north side of Washington on Sunday.
(AP photo/The Pantagraph, Steve Smedley)

 

Ray Baughman embraces family shortly after his home was destroyed by a tornado that left a path of devastation through the north end of Pekin on Sunday.
(AP photo/Journal Star, Fred Zwicky)

A Washington homeowner moves debris next to a set of stairs that once led to the second floor of his home in Washington on Sunday.
(AP photo/The Pantagraph, Steve Smedley)