MILLBURY, Ohio (AP) -- Tornados and thunderstorms that swept through the Midwest overnight killed at least four people in Ohio, sent several to hospitals, destroyed 50 homes and damaged scores more, as well a high school gymnasium where graduation was to be held Sunday.
Authorities in northwest Ohio are still searching through homes and couldn't say whether anyone else is missing, Lake Township Fire Chief Todd Walters said. Walters flew over the damage Sunday morning and estimates the storm left an eight-mile path of destruction in a straight line over an area of farm fields and light industry. The storm narrowly missed the heavily populated suburbs on southern edge of Toledo.
A township police and emergency medical services building looked to be a total loss. The storm ripped off most of the building's back half, tossing a car into where the building once stood, now a mishmash of 2-by-4 beams and insulation strewn about. A patrol car nearby was flattened.
All the emergency dispatchers and 911 operators had to be moved to a nearby town.
"It's unbelievable," Walters said. "It's just total destruction -- stuff just completely flattened or gone."
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Lake Township High school was also among the hardest hit buildings. The field house was damaged and the cafeteria was destroyed, Superintendent Jim Witt said, and some buses were flung across the school parking lot.
In central Illinois, the National Weather service confirmed reports of a tornado touching down 80 to 100 miles southwest of Chicago, meteorologist Charles Mott said. He did not have further details.
