Stubborn drought maintains grip on lower 48 states

Seth Perlman AP

Central Illinois farmers harvest their soybean crops on Sunday in Farmingdale, Ill. With the U.S. enduring its worst drought in decades, corn and soybean prices have soared this summer.

Seth Perlman AP

Central Illinois farmers harvest their soybean crops on Sunday in Farmingdale, Ill. With the U.S. enduring its worst drought in decades, corn and soybean prices have soared this summer.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The nation's worst drought in decades consumed a larger portion of the lower 48 states last week with the Midwest corn harvest in full swing, according to the latest update by a drought-tracking consortium released Thursday.

The U.S. Drought Monitor's new map shows 65.5 percent of the contiguous U.S. experiencing some form of drought as of Tuesday, creeping up from 64.8 percent a week earlier. The portion of the U.S. in extreme or exceptional drought â?? the two worst classifications â?? rose three-quarters of a percentage point to 21.5 percent.

The latest update did not reflect storms that pounded portions of Missouri and Illinois this week, in some areas dumping as much as 7 inches of rain that growers embrace as potentially beneficial to soybean crops still in the fields. Farmers also welcome moisture in the fall and snow in the winter that softens the soil and provides needed saturation for the next planting season.

Storms were expected in portions of the nation's midsection into the weekend, with some states needing the rain more than others.

The latest map released by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln showed that the area of Iowa, the nation's biggest corn producer, deemed to be in exceptional drought rose from 2.4 percent last week to 2.5 percent. The area of land subject to that most severe classification increased 2.3 percentage points in Nebraska to 73.25 percent, while conditions in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana did not change.

Over the next few days, "unfortunately little if any rain is expected to fall across the hard-hit drought areas in the eastern Dakotas, eastern Nebraska and the Upper Mississippi Valley/Upper Great Lakes region," Anthony Artusa of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center wrote in Thursday's update.

The forecast rain will have no impact on the already-matured corn crop currently being harvested.

As of Monday, 39 percent of that crop had been brought in from the fields â?? three times more than by this date in the previous five years due to early planting, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported. More than 54 percent of the corn crop in Illinois has been harvested, while Iowa has harvested 37 percent and Missouri 80 percent.

About 51 percent of the U.S. corn crop is classified as being in poor or very poor shape, essentially unchanged from a week earlier, the USDA said. A year ago, 20 percent of corn in the fields was listed that way.

Twenty-two percent of the U.S. soybean crops have been harvested, with 34 percent considered poor or very poor, the USDA said.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Stubborn drought maintains grip on lower 48 states

Seth Perlman AP

Central Illinois farmers harvest their soybean crops on Sunday in Farmingdale, Ill. With the U.S. enduring its worst drought in decades, corn and soybean prices have soared this summer.

Seth Perlman AP

Central Illinois farmers harvest their soybean crops on Sunday in Farmingdale, Ill. With the U.S. enduring its worst drought in decades, corn and soybean prices have soared this summer.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The nation's worst drought in decades consumed a larger portion of the lower 48 states last week with the Midwest corn harvest in full swing, according to the latest update by a drought-tracking consortium released Thursday.

The U.S. Drought Monitor's new map shows 65.5 percent of the contiguous U.S. experiencing some form of drought as of Tuesday, creeping up from 64.8 percent a week earlier. The portion of the U.S. in extreme or exceptional drought â?? the two worst classifications â?? rose three-quarters of a percentage point to 21.5 percent.

The latest update did not reflect storms that pounded portions of Missouri and Illinois this week, in some areas dumping as much as 7 inches of rain that growers embrace as potentially beneficial to soybean crops still in the fields. Farmers also welcome moisture in the fall and snow in the winter that softens the soil and provides needed saturation for the next planting season.

Storms were expected in portions of the nation's midsection into the weekend, with some states needing the rain more than others.

The latest map released by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln showed that the area of Iowa, the nation's biggest corn producer, deemed to be in exceptional drought rose from 2.4 percent last week to 2.5 percent. The area of land subject to that most severe classification increased 2.3 percentage points in Nebraska to 73.25 percent, while conditions in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana did not change.

Over the next few days, "unfortunately little if any rain is expected to fall across the hard-hit drought areas in the eastern Dakotas, eastern Nebraska and the Upper Mississippi Valley/Upper Great Lakes region," Anthony Artusa of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center wrote in Thursday's update.

The forecast rain will have no impact on the already-matured corn crop currently being harvested.

As of Monday, 39 percent of that crop had been brought in from the fields â?? three times more than by this date in the previous five years due to early planting, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported. More than 54 percent of the corn crop in Illinois has been harvested, while Iowa has harvested 37 percent and Missouri 80 percent.

About 51 percent of the U.S. corn crop is classified as being in poor or very poor shape, essentially unchanged from a week earlier, the USDA said. A year ago, 20 percent of corn in the fields was listed that way.

Twenty-two percent of the U.S. soybean crops have been harvested, with 34 percent considered poor or very poor, the USDA said.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Report: Drought worsens in key farm states

ST. LOUIS – The latest U.S. drought map shows that excessively parched conditions continue to worsen in the Plains states that are key producers of corn and soybean crops.

By Danny Johnston, AP

Dry ears of corn and plant material lie in a field near Plumerville, Ark., last week.

By Danny Johnston, AP

Dry ears of corn and plant material lie in a field near Plumerville, Ark., last week.

The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday shows that the amount of the contiguous U.S. mired in drought conditions dropped a little more than 1 percentage point, to 62.46 percent.

But the expanse still gripped by extreme or exceptional drought rose nearly 2 percentage points to 24.14 percent.

This is the highest percentage of the U.S. in extreme to exceptional drought since Drought Monitor records began in 2000.

The entire states of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado are now in a drought.

The nation's biggest corn and soybean producer, Iowa, is still grappling with the drought. The amount of that state in extreme or exceptional drought more than doubled, rising from 30.74 percent last week to 69.14 percent as of Tuesday.

Overall, across the Midwest, reports of water-related impacts are ticking upward as mandatory restrictions continue to ramp upward around the region, the monitor reports.

"As the drought continues, this will undoubtedly become a more prevalent issue as the agricultural season passes and attention turns to next year's crops or herds," climatologist Mark Svoboda of the National Drought Mitigation Center wrote in the monitor.

Contributing: Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

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Colorado wildfires signal one of state's worst seasons ever

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – As merciless wildfires blaze throughout the West, exhausted firefighters are bracing for more.

By Ed Andrieski, AP

A forest burns Tuesday near Livermore, Colo.

By Ed Andrieski, AP

A forest burns Tuesday near Livermore, Colo.

Colorado is on the brink of one of its worst fire seasons in history, blamed on very high temperatures and a very low snowpack, which left mountains tinder-dry.

After 10 punishing days, the largest fire here, the High Park Fire near Fort Collins, was 55% contained Tuesday night, according to Brett Haberstick of the Interagency Wildfire Dispatch Center.

It has incinerated 189 homes; almost 2,000 are still threatened. It has burned 93 square miles; 1,911 firefighters are trying to halt the destruction. Cost so far: $17.2 million. The fire was set by lightning June 9.

Several other fast-growing fires have broken out in the state. Gov. John Hickenlooper has banned outdoor fires and all fireworks except municipal displays.

The danger of high winds will be lower for a few days, but winds could kick up by the weekend and fan flames in the interior West and the Rockies, said meteorologist Ed Delgado at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.

There's a possibility of thunderstorms in the Southwest and the Rockies on Sunday or Monday, he said. If there is lightning but little or no rain, that could ignite more fires.

Army National Guard police are running checkpoints to deter looters and sightseers. Michael Maher, 30, of Denver, was charged with impersonating a firefighter after police say he posted Facebook photos of himself in firefighting helicopters and with the governor at the High Park command post.

Other wildfires:

•In California, firefighters were able to contain 75% of a 1½-square-mile wildfire in mountainous eastern San Diego County despite gusty winds and low humidity.

•New Mexico's Little Bear Fire near Ruidoso has burned 62 square miles and 242 residential and commercial structures and 12 outbuildings. It was 60% contained.

•The Poco Fire near Young, Ariz., has burned 6 square miles and is a threat to electrical transmission lines that serve Phoenix and Tucson. It was 15% contained.

•The Russells Camp Fire has burned 4 square miles in the southwest corner of Converse County, Wyo., mostly in the Medicine Bow National Forest.

•In northwest Nebraska, a fire has charred an estimated 8 square miles in Sioux County.

•In Hawaii, Maui firefighters were monitoring the wind-driven Kula Fire that prompted an evacuation and damaged three homes.

Hughes also reports for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. Weise reported from San Francisco. Contributing: the Associated Press.

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Tropical Storms, Heavy Rains Avoiding United States (ContributorNetwork)

Tropical storms and hurricanes in 2011 will be harbingers of good and bad things when and if they make landfall in the United States. There are severe droughts throughout the southern portion of the contiguous 48 states. Yet none of the named storms has made a dent in rainfall totals as of Sunday.

The National Hurricane Center predicted warmer than normal ocean temperatures in the Atlantic will have a higher-than-normal total of named storms and big hurricanes. Tropical Storm Don made landfall along the Texas-Mexico border but only brought an inch of rain or less to the area. The next system, Tropical Storm Emily, doused the Haiti and the Dominican Republic but then steered eastward of Florida and headed back out to sea.

By now, at least one hurricane usually forms by this time of year. Instead we've gotten just five tropical storms. The next two weeks will let forecasters know if their predictions will be true. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in late August. Another monster storm, Hurricane Hugo , came ashore in mid-September of 1989.

Experts predicted at least three major hurricanes, up to 18 named storms and as many as seven to 10 hurricanes. The Los Angeles Times reports the initial prediction of six to 10 hurricanes was recently raised by one. Apparently the weather pattern is ripe for storm formation, but the strong ridge of high pressure over the central United States may help spin hurricanes away from land.

Upper level air is the key to steering massive storms. They can help keep storms together or make them fall apart. If there is a huge dome of high and dry air dominating the atmosphere, a smaller low pressure system from the tropics may not be able to penetrate the large mass of air.

It's like a golf ball trying to move a bowling ball. It's not going to happen until the current system of heat moves away from the central United States in order to let moisture inland. The key to the shift will be the jet stream. Finally, some cooler air from Canada will make its way south by Aug. 10. The Weather Channel states the dome of hot air will retreat back to the southwest temporarily due to the shift and possibly bring some rain to parts of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.

Unfortunately, Texas and Oklahoma will continue to bake. Tropical systems will be spun away from where moisture is needed most. Nothing will happen until the hot pattern completely dissipates, which may not occur until September. After that, get ready for some nasty hurricanes that might invade the southern United States.

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Wyoming joins Northern Rocky states seeking disaster aid (Reuters)

CODY, Wyoming (Reuters) – Governor Matt Mead asked on Tuesday for a presidential disaster declaration in Wyoming to free up federal funds to repair roads and bridge damaged by harsh winter weather and flooding.

Mead became the third governor in the Northern Rockies to seek such a declaration stemming from floods, landslides and washouts during a spring and early summer marked by runoff from heavy rains and the melting of a record mountain snowpack.

Damage to public infrastructure, including highways, bridges and sewer treatment systems, is projected to run in the millions across Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Citing figures from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mead said damage in Wyoming alone was estimated to total more than $4 million, with the cost of emergency repairs to highways and interstates put at an additional $2.8 million.

Any general disaster declarations in the state would be granted by President Barack Obama county by county. Mead also asked the U.S. Agriculture Department to declare farm disasters in two counties.

Earlier in the season, a presidential disaster was declared in Montana, where severe storms and flooding on tributaries of the Missouri River racked up an estimated $8.6 million in damage. A presidential disaster declaration was approved for Idaho in May for damage pegged at $4.4 million.

Jeff Kitsmiller, meteorologist in Montana for the National Weather Service, said La Nina, a weather pattern characterized by colder ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific, was behind the harsh weather in the Rocky Mountain West.

"It's an almost historic La Nina. For the Northern Rockies, that results in a lot of winter snow and spring rain," he said.

La Nina, also blamed for this year's devastating tornadoes in the Midwest and elsewhere and for a severe drought in the southwestern United States, has left snow in high elevations of the Rockies at levels Kitsmiller described as "off the charts" in some spots.

He said forecasts show the La Nina pattern could make a comeback in the region this winter.

"We'd see a lot more of the same: more snowfall, more precipitation," he said.

(Additional reporting and writing by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Johnston)

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USDA Gives $3 Million to Five Western States for Flood Aid (ContributorNetwork)

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture government website, the USDA announced it will be giving $3 million to five western states to provide emergency watershed protection as each are under threat from potential flood damages as record amounts of mountain snowpack melt.

The announcement was made today by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who said the federal funding would come directly from the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service. Each state -- Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Montana, -- would be receiving financial and technical assistance in the sum of $600,000 for Emergency Watershed Protection. With this government funding, each state's Natural Resources Conservation Service

Vilsack spoke about the importance of bringing emergency funding to each of the five western states as the threat of potential flooding becomes larger. Vilsack said, "Having the EWP Program funds in advance will help USDA work quickly with local, state and tribal sponsors to provide needed assistance if the snowpack melts rapidly and causes flooding. USDA has long played a vital role in helping state and local governments and communities with water management in this region."

Many states are already bracing for flooding as the snowpack melts. According to the Republic in Greeley, Colo., officials have been forced to close several roads because the Poudre River is continuing to rise to higher than normal water levels. Sen. Mark Udall, R-Colo., said that the funding would go toward removing debris and projects that help prevent soil erosion.

Utah is also preparing for the floods as well. Utah National Guard helicopters helped deliver giant sandbags on Friday to help hold back rising floodwaters after a levee on the Weber River breached Thursday due to melting snowpack in the northern part of the state, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. So far the waters have hit farmland and several homes nearby.

The USDA press release noted the EWP Program works with local governments to bring the assistance to where it's needed and that it helps with all different types conservation efforts during major natural disasters, including floods, wildfires, windstorms, and droughts, and aids directly in protecting both citizens and public and private property. In the case of floods, the funding can help reduce storm water runoff, preventing soil erosion, and removing floating and submerged debris that get caught along river routes.

Rachel Bogart provides an in-depth look at current environmental issues and local Chicago news stories. As a college student from the Chicago suburbs pursuing two science degrees, she applies her knowledge and passion to both topics to garner further public awareness.

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Southern states feel the heat, face thunderstorms (Reuters)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla (Reuters) – Hotter than normal temperatures in several Southern states on Sunday have meteorologists warning residents to take special precautions before going outside.

Heat advisories are in effect for western Tennessee down through Mississippi and Louisiana, with heat index values expected to reach 105 degrees in some places, according to the National Weather Service.

"It typically doesn't get this hot this quickly," said National Weather Service meteorologist John Cohen in Nashville.

"Normally you get into July and August before you'll have a time period where you have temperatures well into the 90s like we're having day after day after day."

There is also a heat advisory for the St. Louis, Missouri area, which remains in effect until Wednesday night.

The high heat and humidity is likely to result in violent thunderstorms on Sunday from Des Moines, Iowa to Raleigh, North Carolina, according to AccuWeather.com.

The storms could produce damaging winds, hail and frequent lightning, but the risk of tornadoes is low, AccuWeather.com said.

Other cities at risk for severe weather include Springfield, Illinois; Evansville, Indiana; Bowling Green, Kentucky; Knoxville, Tennessee; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Greenville and Florence in South Carolina.

To cope with the heat, weather experts advised residents to drink plenty of fluids, stay out of the sun when possible, reschedule strenuous activities for the early morning and evening and wear lightweight, loose-fitting clothing.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Severe weather batters 11 states (Reuters)

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) – Communities across the middle of the country cleaned up on Thursday from more tornadoes and high winds after another stormy night, while states further East began facing severe weather problems of their own.

A wave of storms started hitting the South and East Thursday afternoon, with softball-sized hail in Georgia and high winds downing trees in upstate New York.

Thunderstorms accompanied by heavy rains and strong winds in Atlanta late Thursday caused three deaths from falling trees, and left more than 100,000 without power, according to local media reports.

The known toll of dead from Sunday's massive tornado in Joplin, Missouri, meanwhile went up by one on Thursday to 126.

A series of twisters had killed another 16 people in three states on Tuesday night.

By Thursday, nearly 100 hours after the deadliest tornado in the United States in 64 years, officials in Joplin were still trying to find 232 people unaccounted for after the tornado, which also injured more than 900 people.

Search crews with cadaver dogs were still looking for victims in the miles of rubble left by the storm, but hope was fading for finding people alive.

One of those who had been unaccounted for was confirmed dead on Thursday. Skyular Logsdon, a 16-month-old boy ripped from his mother's arms during the tornado, was identified by a great aunt who knew him well, the boy's father told Reuters.

The fate of the boy touched the hearts of thousands as his relatives searched hospitals and morgues after finding his clothes wrapped around a telephone pole and his teddy bear nearby.

The storms in the nation's midsection overnight resulted in at least 81 reports of tornadoes and severe weather across at least 11 states, according to a National Weather Service severe weather map.

"It was a very active day," said David Imy, meteorologist with the National Storm Prediction Center.

Thursday afternoon, locally damaging thunderstorms were seen from the central Gulf Coast to northern New England, according to AccuWeather.com.

Softball-sized hail fell on Morganton, Ga., damaging vehicles, while winds downed trees and power lines in Pennsylvania and New York, the website said.

There were reports of a possible tornado in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, according to AccuWeather. Many areas of the Appalachians will be hit or threatened by the storms Friday evening. Later tonight through Friday, the main threat will be flash, urban and small-stream flooding.

The death toll from the tornadoes that hit Oklahoma Tuesday climbed to 10 with the discovery of the body of Ryan Hamil, 3, on the shoreline of a lake west of Oklahoma City, Captain Chris West of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said on Thursday. His 16-month-old brother Cole had also been killed.

The spate of tornadoes this week has overshadowed severe flooding along the Mississippi River.

Flooding also is a problem in North and South Dakota where residents of Bismarck and Pierre were warned of flooding from the Missouri River.

Severe thunderstorms are possible Friday across most of the country from southeast Montana in the West to the Florida Panhandle in the south and then northeast to northern Vermont, according to weather.com.

The tornadoes overnight ranged from Bedford, Indiana to Smithville, Tennessee and south to Farmersville, Louisiana.

In Smithville, a city about 70 miles southeast of Nashville. a market and a gas station were blown away, and a restaurant was severely damaged, according to Mayor Taft Hendrixson.

"It could have been a whole lot worse if it had stayed on the ground longer," Hendrixson said.

Tornadoes have killed a total of 504 people in the United States so far this year, making it the deadliest tornado year since 1953, according to the National Weather Service.

(Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Reporting by Tim Ghianni, Suzi Parker, Susan Guyett, Steve Olafson, Colleen Jenkins, Kathy Finn, Richard Mattern, David Beasley and Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Greg McCune and Jerry Norton)

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Powerful storms pound several central US states (AP)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – In storm-weary middle America, many people were counting themselves fortunate after powerful storms swept through the region for the third time in four days but apparently claimed no lives.

Dozens of people were injured, mobile homes were flipped and roofs were torn off houses when tornadoes and thunderstorms hit Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and other states Wednesday evening.

In southern Indiana, neighbors used flashlights to check on each other and their homes and barns near Bloomington after powerful winds overturned two mobile homes. Crews worked overnight to clear uprooted trees and downed power lines after a tornado touched down in a mostly rural area about 25 miles south near Bedford.

The extent of the damage wouldn't be known until daybreak, but residents expressed relief that no deaths were reported in the latest round of storms even though several homes were destroyed and more than a dozen people were injured, including three or four children.

"We're very fortunate," said Lawrence County Sheriff Sam Craig.

Wednesday's storms followed a deadly outbreak Tuesday in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas that killed at least 15 people. On Sunday, the nation's deadliest single tornado since 1950 killed 125 in the southwest Missouri city of Joplin.

The National Weather Service issued tornado watches and a series of warnings in a dozen states earlier Wednesday, stretching northwest from Texas though the Mississippi River valley to Ohio. By Thursday morning, tornado watches were in effect in most of Mississippi, northwestern Alabama and central Kentucky.

"This is just a wild ride," said Beverly Poole, chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service's office in Paducah, Ky.

Heavy rain, hail and lightning pounded Memphis on Wednesday night as a tornado warning sounded. There were no confirmed reports of tornadoes touching down.

Back in southern Indiana, tow truck driver Martin Poteat was in the parking lot of the Walmart on the south side of Bloomington when the storm struck, ripping a cart corral loose and sending it into his truck and spawning up a debris cloud.

"Everything came up off the ground. Everything was just flying," he said.

Earlier in the day, as many as 25 people suffered minor injuries when a tornado damaged several homes and businesses in the central Missouri city of Sedalia. Officials said most were able to get themselves to the hospital for treatment.

"Considering the destruction that occurred in Joplin — being that we're in tornado alley and Sedalia has historically been hit by tornadoes in the past — I think people heeded that warning," Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond said. "And so, I think that helped tremendously."

Officials in Sedalia ended the school year several days early because of damage to buses.

Sean McCabe was rushing to the basement of his mother's home in Sedalia when the tornado struck and shoved him down the final flight of steps. The 30-year-old suffered scrapes and cuts on his hands, wrists, back and feet. He said neighbors and firefighters helped him get out.

Most of the roof was ripped off the house, which was among the more heavily damaged homes in the area. McCabe, who has a service dog for epilepsy, said both his family's dogs survived, including one found muddy and wet about a block away.

"I saw little debris and then I saw big debris, and I'm like `OK, let's go,'" McCabe said.

Elsewhere in the hard-hit neighborhood, law officers stood on corners and electrical crews worked on power lines. Numerous trees were down, and tarps were covering some houses while others were missing chunks of their roofs. People were cleaning debris and sifting through belongings.

In Illinois, strong winds, rain and at least four possible tornadoes knocked down power lines and damaged at least one home and a number of farm buildings across the central and eastern parts of the state.

"Mostly it was shingles off roofs and garages," said Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson.

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Current Weather Conditions Across The 48 Contiguous United States

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