Residents allowed back into Illinois farming community hit by tornado to view destruction
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Residents of a small northern Illinois farming community that took a direct hit from a tornado are being allowed back into the area to assess the damage.
The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office says it bused residents into Fairdale at 7 a.m. Saturday.
The National Weather Service says eight tornadoes are confirmed to have roared across northern and central Illinois during Thursday's storms.
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The strongest of the tornadoes hit Fairdale, where two people were killed. That tornado also injured 22 people.
The weather service gave it a preliminary rating of an EF-4 with winds of between 180 and 200 mph. It was a half-mile wide and remained on the ground for almost 30 miles.