Dramatic Photos of the Monster Tornado That Ripped Through an Illinois Town

A massive tornado swept through northern Illinois on Thursday night, killing a 67-year old woman and injuring seven others. 

The twister tore through the small town of Fairdale, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Local authorities told the Associated Press that no homes were spared from damage. According to the Illinois Office of Emergency Management, 25 were obliterated. 

"The west side of Fairdale was pretty well destroyed," DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott told WLS-TV.

Footage shot by Tyler Olson for Live Storms Media and uploaded to YouTube paints of a terrifying picture of a monster.

In the background, somebody can be heard shouting "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," as the tornado roars past the highway. "There goes cars," someone says. "I saw headlights go flying."

The state is currently in tornado season, which runs from mid-March to June. 

Photos from media and uploaded to Twitter show the damage.

Local media on the scene tweeted images showing the wreckage of the restaurant Grubsteakers. Twelve people rode out the storm in the eatery's storm cellar and had to be rescued by emergency crews. 

"The house shook like Dorothy in Wizard of Oz," resident Pamela Metcalf told the Daily Chronicle. "My husband and I ran into the food pantry underneath the stairwell, and that's where we sat and watched and waited."

The tornado was caused by severe thunderstorms in the area that were part of a broader swath of storms that had been descending across the Midwest from Michigan to Missouri. The bad weather was expected to continue into Friday, according to the National Weather Service.  

The Prairie State is no stranger to rampaging twisters. Data from the Storm Prediction Center and the National Climatic Data Center found that Illinois ranked seventh in the nation for tornado activity averaging 35 a year between 1953 and 2004, the Chicago Tribune reported.