i mentioned pekin a little bit ago. i got a little bit ahead of myself.re are no major injuries being reported in northern parts of pekin, illinois. but the town is heavily damaged. eugene daniel from wmbd reports 46 homes are a total loss. >> reporter: the scene near pekin's lakeside cemetery is troubling. trees and power lines are down. homes severely damaged. some structures completely gone. >> the garage is sitting there with the truck, it's gone. it's laying there. >> reporter: one resident said his neighborhood looked like a war zone across the northern parts of pekin, damage is widespread. >> the house is damaged all the way from second and sheridan to sheridan and parkway and then north. homes with some broken windows. the roof's gone. to some total devastation. >> reporter: homeowners have their work cut out for them. picking up the pieces behind the tornado. and you can see some of the devastation. in fact, where i'm standing right now was a garage. authorities are going door to door, checking on residents. crews are working on power outages and

>> yeah, a tornado actually ripped through neighborhoods through pekin. the ones that i took pictures of, people were, like they saw them out their front door. i got that call from my friend's dad and we rushed down there as fast as we could to go help him. and i kind of caught the aftermath. i'm sure there's so much damage there were definitely tornadoes in there. >> did you take refuge? >> um, i immediately, my immediate thought was just to go help. i have been in my home after i took those pictures, i've just been keeping updated on stuff, like our nearby town, washington, illinois, just got completely leveled and it's devastating to hear. and we're keeping updated on our town. and, yeah, i've been staying in my house ever since the tornado hit. >> well, good luck to you. job well done helping out all of your friends, jacks lance, pekin, illinois, a town that has really been devastated by at least one tornado. it would appear many of them. and, of course, an incredible storm system has ripped through several states in the midwest, at least ten states h

pekin street is aiming to change the way we live. onces that this resident is aware of. he moved here and says his commitment to the environment goes beyond the financial. >> it's not about saving money, but saving the planet. we like the fact that we are less of a burden on the infrastructure of the world than we used to be. >> pekin street is about more than cheaper utility bills, it's a laboratory where information is gather from each home. it's a picture that emerges from information that has the potential to shaken the way we use energy. >> they call it big data. terabytes of information are processed to understand how residents use and abuse energy. it's the mush that thicks this a smart grid. it's little more than an exercise without participants. >> if you are going to have a revolution, i joke that you might need to invite the people. if we change the way energy is used and abused in this country you have to make it enjoyable. >> pekin street had to find volunteers. for some it's changed. >> sometimes you are accused of being a tree hugger. it's like, "well, it'

. >> pekin street is about more than cheeper utility bills. information from these homes is gathered in mine ute detail. it has the potential to change the way we use energy. it's called big data and terabytes of information are processed to understand how residents use and abuse energy. it's that push that makes this a smart grid. without willing participants it's little more than an active exercise. >> if you have a revolution, you may want to invite the people. if we are going to change the way energy is used and viewed in this country, we'll have to make it innocentliable for people. >> pekin street managed to find plenty of volunteers and the community is expanding. for some it's a change that can't come soon enough. >> sometimes you are accused of being the tree hugger. it's nice to have a tree to hug. come and join us. it's frustrating that you have to buck the system to do the right thing. >> pekin street is an experiment a study in how things could look in years to cox. these beyond the project believe they are building a foundation f

it was in pekin, illinois and washington, illinois in tazewell county. but it did move from pekin, illinois to washington in a northeasterly direction. there are reports of severe damage to home, power lines. many of our phone line, land lines are down. we have units on scene in both of those cities. both have requested the assistance of the unified command post, which units that can set up and blanket all communications in the area. we are responding units to those locations, to pekin and washington to set up that communications and to coordinate the effort. >> and, bill, what is your best advice at this point? thankfully we have technology that warns people about these things that are coming, and our meteorologist just spilled it out. but what's your best advice to folks in this area day point? >> right now in tazewell county is to stay put, report any significant damage to their local authorities, either fire or police. and, again, we'll be moving our mobile units into those areas to coordinate the efforts. >> and this is something that you do for a l

felipe rodriguez es su amigo y vino a visitarla desde la ciudad vecina de pekin, con articulos para arropar pero el pertenece a una organizacion que ayuda a las minorias y dice que hay mas personas como yoseline que no quieren solicitar ayuda por que tienen miedo... por la experiencia que yo tengo es dependiendo su situacion su estatus migratorio, quits as no les gusta exponerse, mas que nada como ahorita la ciudad esta vigilada por la policia quiz as algunos no tienen identificacion por lo pronto yoseline ha comenzado a cambiar de opinion pues dice que ya no quiere que su familia pase mas noches de frio en la oscuridad pienso que voy a ir mas alvaro a lo de la iglesia para ver si me puedo quedar aya por los ninos stop open cesar ---la ciudad de oakland anunci esta noche que se solidariza con el joven que se autodefine como "asexuado" quien fue atacado por un adolescente en un autobus de ac transit... take vo ---las concejales "lynette gibson" y "rebecca kaplan" le pidieron esta tarde al concejo que apoye a "sasha fleischman", el joven que sufrio quemaduras en sus piernas... ---la ciudad ap

las fotografÍas muestran que el momento en que un tornado se formaba en el Área, en pekin un remolinoo toco tierra. en indiana resultÓ afectado. asÍ volcados los automÓviles estacionados en este cafÉ, los dueÑos en espera de ayuda. autoridad prometieron ayuda a amdinia damnificados, se espera que estÉn en la zona del desastre, univisiÓn. >>> una poblaciÓn mÁs afectada es illinois, uno de los estados que con mayor crudeza sufriÓ el paso de los tornados, hasta alÍi fue jazmÍn beltrÁn periodista de nuestra afiliada en chicago. cual>>> completamente destruidos, los hogares de decenas de residentes en washington illinois, al suroeste de chicago. esta noche, decenas buscaban refugio del frÍo, y comida en la iglesia, ubicada a pasos de la destrucciÓn. >>> (hablan en inglÉs). >>> cuando vi que era un tornado, quedÉ en estado de shock, es noviembre, no estamos supuestos a tener tornados en noviembre. tomÉ un colchÓn, los coloquÉ sobre mÍ, sonaba como un tren de carga. >>> me siento afortunado de estar con vida, no estaba en casa cuando tocÓ tierra, sino estarÍa muerto, lo mÁs importante para m

but it is a very well-defined funnel cloud in pekin, illinois. there you have it.mages are scary for the people taking them. here you see two levels of clouds, of gray, and of course fear for the people actually taking this photo. we have go to the next photo. here, i'm -- there we go. this is very important, folks. we talk time and time again of how important visualizing this, taking pictures, but we want to be sure you are careful out there doing this. be very, very careful. this is why you should be careful. the next photo will show us destruction that we've seen in these line of storms. now we've seen a lot of tweets, a lot of information flowing into social media for a lot of these towns. garner, washington, peoria, give ordered just south and southwest of chicago. like i was saying, a lot of the times, some of the messages are family members, some messages are about the devastation and destruction that they are seeing in their communities. >> unbelievable. at first i want to get to something new we have and some new video into cnn. this is from our affiliate

the same tornado that hit washington also struck the town of pekin, 18 miles away. jeff lehman says he barely escaped. >> my son said there it is. in a matter of seconds, we turned around and it was right on top of us. we hustled in the house and before we knew it, it was gone. it was that fast. >> reporter: the national weather service estimates a tornado with winds of 166 miles an hour hit the town of new minden, illinois. a man and his sister died when the twister hit their farmhouse. heavy rain, hail and high winds contributed to damage in at least 7 states. illinois saw the brunt of those storms. but because of poor cell reception and blocked roads because of debris, it's still unclear how many people may have been injured and whether that death toll will continue to rise. live in washington, illinois i'm bigad shaban. back to you. >> bigad, what can you tell us about the search and recovery effort this morning? >> reporter: well, i spoke with a state trooper today who says they will certainly continue that effort. with just so much debris and piles of rubble t

in pekin 150 homes were damaged - 48 uninhabitable. >> it cut a path through the north side - bounced, hit several different neighbourhoods. this is one of the worst as far as the most homes in one area. >> when the storm hit dave's grandfather and his wife were pressed against the fridge as the sky opened up above them. >> she turned around, walked in and the garage door came flying off as she walked back into the house. she just put her arms around him, stood there and weathered the storm. >> the wind ripped bricks from the facade, prop peling a security poll through the house, but it was not strong enough to tear dave's grandparents from their arms. >> illinois had over three dozen moderate-strength tornados since 1895 - but none as strong as sundays. >> supplies have not reached some parts of the philippines 12 days after the typhoon hit. 4,000 have died, 4 million are homeless - more than those displaced about hurricane katrina and the tsunami. food, water and other supplies are arriving with more regularity. the u.n. says many are in need of help. 50 navy ships and aircrafts are

it also struck the town of pekin 18 miles away. jeff said he barely escaped. >> my son said there it is. in a matter of seconds it was right on top of us. we hutled in the house and before we knew it, it was gone, it's that fast. >> reporter: the national weather service indicates a tornado. an elderly man and his sister died when the twister hit their farmhouse. heavy rain, hail, and high winds contributed to damage in at least seven states. and it was illinois that certainly got the brunt of those storms. and now it's still unclear, though, anne-marie, because of spotty cell service and communication, just really difficult how many people were actually hurt and whether that dealt toll will continue to rise. >> bigad shaban in washington, illinois. thank you very much. >>> the storm exploded when the winter jet stream skbloeded. take a look. today those temperatures are cooling off by as much as 20 degrees in some areas to a more seasonable level. two minors were killed in a mining accident in southwestern colorado. the mine is lo

> this image of a cloud in central illinois was posted on twitter with the storm hitting a town of pekin where it is confirmed a tornado touched down. several homes were leveled bit twister. tornado watches were posted in seven states. >> aair travel is back to normal after flights were delayed by the storms. at sfo passengers gathered luggage after a united flight from chicago arrived seven hours late. the original plane was damaged in the storm. mechanics tried to fix it but the airline brought in another plane. >> they came in and calmly said there was damage to the rudder. it did not break off but they said there was damage to the rudder. >> the rudder? >> flights arriving from chicago were delayed most of the day and were back on schedule last night. >> overseas, in parts of the philippines hit by typhoon haiyan markets and gas stations are slowly re-opening as aid flows in. at the airport, part of the hardest hit areas, water and rice is ready for distribution. teams are loading debris on the strucks from around the world with teams arriving to help. >> you can make donations to th

damage -- this is the system that is headed to chicago and the pictures that we are showing are from pekind washington, illinois, more the central part of the state. the damage that we are seeing looks widespread and massive. it is severe damage. to be clear, we do not know of any casualties as of yet. we are doing our best reporting to get that information to you, but it looks like so many people in these neighborhoods that we are seeing lost everything, cars and homes and wood, just strewn across these streets and this is the system that is headed to chicago. so you can understand why they told people to take shelter. now, it's our understanding, usher, that the game is basically at a standstill but i would assume at some point, they may end up cancelling the game. i know that's not anything we know for sure. but --? >> right. >> i can't imagine they will have people standing there forever. we are talking about thousands of people? >> correct. correct. we understand that the earliest the game play could resume if in fact it does. it's about 3:00 p.m. central time. so about, you know, we

turned on the weather channelx: and when the tv finally came onc were announcingçó that the town of pekinned and started listening to the report and i don't know, say about five to ten minutes in was when the emergency broadcast and what came on on the tv and on my computer. >> tell us what you saw outside, eric, when youq went outside an started shooting. what did you actually qsee? >> well, whenok i got outside, looked around at first and i didn't see anything. and the sirene1 had since turne off. and i wasfá looking east, looki west as far as i could see. i'm in kind of a dense residential neighborhood. and so i looked east again andf saw what looked likexd rotation heading towards peoriafá street. i kind of sort of looked and looked asw tried to focus a little bit htmore. and sure -sz0+uy it was?; a tornado. and it was crazy. it sounded like a slow-movingçó freight train to me and it was moving very fastly across the street. know what to do. so when i !izez came to mentally so to speak i hit record on my iphone andxdÑihgt recording the whole thingq i understand you said youok had ag

at this, an image of a funnel cloud in central illinois posted on twitter showing the storm hitting pekinere it is confirmed the tornado touched down by the national weather service. >> air ralph is back to normal after flights from chicago were delayed by the storms. at sfo, one flight from chicago arrived seven hours late. the original plane was damaged by the storm. mechanics tried to fix the damage but the airline brought in another airplane. >> they came in and calmly said this was damage to the rudder. it didn't break off...but they said this was damage to the rudder. >> the rudder is supposedly on the plane we were suppose today get on, was stuck the then they said, we need to fix this so it will be another hour. then they are, like, well, the plane ain't workin'. >> the flights arriving from chicago were delayed most of the day and got back on schedule last night. >> parts of the philippines hit hardest by typhoon haiyan are slowing re-opening after aid flows in. in tacloban debris is being cleared and rice and water is being brought in. we are hosting a fundraiser to help victims

the same tornado that hit washington also struck the town of pekin 18 miles away. jeff lehman says he barely escaped. >> my son said, there it is. and i mean, in a matter of seconds we turned around and it was right on top of us. we hustled in the house and before we knew it, it was gone. it was that fast. >> reporter: the national weather service estimates a tornado with winds of 166 miles per hour hit the town of new minden, illinois. an elderly man and his sister died when the twister hit their farmhouse. heavy rain, hail and high winds contributed to damage in at least 7 states. illinois certainly saw the brunt of those storms but because of poor cell service and blocked roads, it's unclear how many people may have been injured and whether that death toll, michelle, might continue to rise. >> bigad, you can see all that debris right behind you. describe the instruction where you're standing. >> reporter: well, it's hard to imagine what this actually used to be. just behind this area right here, were a number of mobile home parks that were demolished and destroy

. >> reporter: in a community of pekin, authorities went door to door checking on residents for fear of gas leaks. one resident described the aftermath as a war zone. >> i'm just devastated. i just feel sick. >> reporter: further south, a tornado carved a path of destruction in brookport, directly hitting two mobile home parks. >> i don't have anything. my whole -- it's gone. i don't know where it went. >> reporter: widespread funnel clouds even spotted in chicago. >> please clear the seating area calmly. >> reporter: tornado warnings forced officials to evacuate soldier field, delaying the bears game. but once the twisters passed, there was a new blast of energy, cleanup efforts, waves of people coming to each other's aid looking for survivors, searching for valuables, toppled semis pulled upright and most importantly, spirits raised. >> we'll make it through it. we're just so grateful that the lord preserved so many lives here. >> reporter: it's a prayerful community no question about that but it's just not about their faith. they believe in each other here. there are so many peopl

. >> reporter: in a community of pekin, authorities went door to door checking on residents for fearthe aftermath as a war zone. >> i'm just devastated. i just feel sick. >> reporter: further south, a tornado carved a path of destruction in brookport, directly hitting two mobile home parks. >> i don't have anything. my whole -- it's gone. i don't know where it went. >> reporter: widespread funnel clouds even spotted in chicago. >> please clear the seating area calmly. >> reporter: tornado warnings forced officials to evacuate soldier field, delaying the bears game. but once the twisters passed, there was a new blast of energy, cleanup efforts, waves of people coming to each other's aid looking for survivors, searching for valuable, toppled semis pulled upright and most importantly, spirits raised. >> we'll make it through it. we're just so grateful that the lord preserved so many lives here. >> reporter: as powerful as these storms were it seems the power of this community, the strength to want to get back on its feet is stronger but so many say, i bring in indra petersons, meteorolo