Storms rip through Ill., Ind., killing 4, injuring dozens

Illinois state authorities did not say how a fourth person died.
UTICA, Ill. (AP) -- A tornado-laden storm plowed through north-central Illinois, flattening or damaging dozens of buildings, including a restaurant where at least three people were killed.
Three bodies were found today in the basement of the Milestone Tap, a two-story building that collapsed in downtown Utica, said coroner Jody Bernard.
Bernard said there could be more fatalities or survivors as search and rescue efforts continued.
Late Tuesday night, Fire Chief Dave Edgecomb said authorities had communicated with people in the basement, but there had been no updates on possible trapped victims since.
Five people already had been rescued from the building; LaSalle County Sheriff Tom Templeton said he did not know their conditions.
State officials said Tuesday night's storm was responsible for at least four deaths in and around this community of about 1,000 residents some 90 miles southwest of Chicago. A cause for the fourth death was not given.
Four other people in the area, including three children, were hospitalized with injuries, officials said. Violent storms also ripped through central Indiana, injuring at least eight people.
Indiana
Authorities said from three to six people suffered minor injuries in Jamestown, northwest of Indianapolis, where about a dozen homes were damaged. One person was injured when a tractor-trailer was blown off Interstate 74 in Boone County. The storm reportedly blew as many as four semitrailers off the highway.
Rescuers in Utica searching through the rubble of the Milestone were hampered because the building was made of sandstone and crumbled easily.
"The structure is not stable," Bernard said.
Generators roared overnight, supplying power to rescue workers toiling in the town left in the dark. Yellow police tape also cordoned off several downtown blocks where the heaviest damage occurred.
Dozens of buildings in a three- to four-block area were damaged, several collapsed in piles of brick and splintered wood, said state Trooper Tim Reppin.
"This would equate to what I saw in Plainfield 10 or 15 years ago," Reppin said, referring to the Aug. 28, 1990, tornado that killed 29 people and damaged more than 1,000 homes along a 16-mile path near Joliet.
Mervin Taylor had just finished rounding up his 22 head of cattle when he watched the huge tornado barreling toward his home take a left and head for downtown Utica.
Taylor, whose property wasn't damaged, said the tornado turned away from his property about a block away. "I didn't have time to be scared," the 72-year-old said.
The storm collapsed a drugstore roof and destroyed at least one home in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, officials there said. The storm also damaged about 60 homes and a bank in Granville.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.