looking at moments ago. he said las car dealership has been damaged in the area. numerous homes had their roofs blown off. and homes, as he said, just blown up many of them by the storm. gas lines are out, we re told. in the area. some exposed gas that they are trying to get a handle on that. he said on the south end of cocomo, a shelter in place. an area where people could shelter in place but he said both hospitals in the area were up and running. the only light in many areas, you can see flash lights from emergency workers or flash lights from people who live there who are trying to assess damage from their homes as you can imagine. these towns, many of them devastated by this. 1600 people, as you can see on the bottom of your screen there without power in cocomo. 16,000 without power in cocomo, indiana. these pictures coming into cnn every moment. as soon as we get them, we will bring them to you here on cnn. this one is live and according
about the stories behind these pictures. i want to you focus on these four photos. you are looking at them now. these photos were taken in washington illinois. these were taken by jim ardis. he is the mayor of illinois. these are pictures of his mother-in-law s home. the home is pretty much destroyed. this is what we continue to see on social media, on-line. folks looking through the rubble, trying to figure out what s left. a lot of times, as you might imagine, momentos lost or completely damaged, completely destroyed. now we will move on and take you to st. louis. and we ve got video here that you can take a look that shows, kind of the strength of this storm. and you can see that the winds and rain just ravish through tloo. so if we can listen to that for just a moment.tloo.
a high rise in chicago, illinois, despite the ferociousness, the lights stayed on. fans were evacuated to safe areas inside soldier filed and play resumed after a two-hour delay. cnn s george howl is in chicago now. george, frightening scene for many people there. don, you showed the video. you see that damage. you see the strong winds that were associated with that storm system. can you understand the concern about this storm as it moved into the chicago land area. again, you mentioned the game with the bears and ravens, they are getting on the road. traffic a nightmare here, as it is typically after games like this. but when you consider the weather situation, it is even worse for people trying to get back home. also want to talk about the situation now. we re not out of the woods here. storms have passed through. we re still getting very strong gusts of wind that come through.
or lit. however you would like to say it. by either cars or flash lights. at the moment. i want you to check this out. i hope no one our father who art in heaven is cnn i-reporter anthony corey in washington, illinois, where a storm, a tornado as a matter of fact, came within a few hundred a yards of his home. he witnessed it as it really destroyed his neighbor s home. can you see that. they broke into prayer. we spoke with him minutes good. i asked him why he said that and he said he is a religious man and his family believed it would save them in the storm. this tornado leveled the town in washington, illinois.
tornado as we go throughout the evening. i hesitate to say that because i don t want anybody to think this is over and done with but we have certainly seen our fair share of 65 reports of tornadoes, extending from southern chicago to the east of st. louis. your cape gentlemen regardo, missouri and over to kentucky towards hup kins county. and as you just mentioned, don, right around cocomo with plenty of damage to report there. back to you. karen, very busy night for people in the midwest. lots of them won t get any sleep. we will be here for you on cnn as well. karen maginnis and i. as long as the worldwide resources of cnn. we won t go off storm. stay with cnn all evening. we want you to be safe. that s what we are here for. we take you live to chicago next.