Story by Rockford Register Star
The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for Winnebago, Boone and Ogle counties.
The outlook warns of hazardous weather expected Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, mainly severe thurnderstorms, high winds and possibly flooding.
"Scattered thunderstorms are possible late Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning," the weather service states on its website: weather.gov. "Some of these thunderstorms may become severe, especially late Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday evening and again Wednesday morning."
Tuesday morning's regularly scheduled monthly tornado siren test was canceled because of the possibility of bad weather.
In light of the most recent forecast, the Rockford Board of Election Commissioners asked that Tuesday's voters visit the polls as early as possible.
Friday's storm
The Rockford area continues to heal, clean and make repairs after Friday night's storms that resulted in multiple tornado touchdowns across the region.
A northeastern path through Rockford and Machesney Park saw extensive property damage and power outages. The Apollo Theatre in Belvidere sustained heavy damage while hundreds of people were attending a heavy metal rock show. One man was killed and dozens were injured. Part of the roof collapsed on top of the audience.
The weather service has now confirmed at least 18 tornadoes in Illinois and Indiana on Friday. The investigation is ongoing.
In northwest Illinois, touchdowns occurred near Deer Grove, Amboy, West Brooklyn, Baileyville, Machesney Park, Davis Junction to Belvidere and Caledonia/Poplar Grove. Other cities affected include Montgomery to Aurora, Batavia, St. Charles, Plainfield, Wellington, Stockland, Lombard to Addison, and in Indiana — Merrillville, Oxford, Fowler and Remington.
A tornado watch was issued at 2:30 p.m. through 10 p.m. Friday, the weather service said. Severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings also were issued as the storms moved across the area, and a tornado warning was issued for Boone County about 20 minutes before the Belvidere damage occurred.
Recovery efforts ongoing
More than 1,000 power outages across northern Illinois affected nearly 60,000 customers Friday night.
According to the ComEd outage map Monday, all but about 25 customers have had their electricity restored.
Clean up efforts are ongoing across the Rockford area.
The City of Rockford opened a drop-off site for branches and yard debris Saturday at the former Magna grocery store parking lot, 3915 E. State St.
The city posted on social media that the site will be open until further notice.
The city also is giving residents a curbside pickup option for large debris that can't be brought to the site.
Officials said public works crews will be working in neighborhoods affected by the storm in the coming weeks and also will pick up debris set on the curb.
