Cities and towns in Missouri<\/a>, Illinois<\/a>, Wisconsin<\/a> and Minnesota<\/a> confirmed structural damage to homes and buildings, as well as downed trees and power lines.<\/p>\n DANGEROUS SEVERE STORMS FIRE OFF STRONG TORNADOES, ‘MONSTER’ HAIL TARGETING 50M+ ACROSS 1,500 MILES<\/a><\/p>\n The National Weather Service confirmed at least 20 tornado reports across several states.<\/p>\n Lena<\/a>, Illinois, reported significant structural damage to the town, including the high school and elementary school. No injuries or fatalities were reported.<\/p>\n The sheriff advised people to stay away as they continued to assess damage.<\/p>\n The FOX Weather Beast captured a tornado on camera in Rockton, Illinois<\/a>, where our Exclusive Storm Trackers Brandon Copic and Corey Gerken were also present.<\/p>\n FOX Weather Storm Trackers in the field amid a severe weather outbreak across the Central US. The FOX Weather Beast team featuring Meteorologist Haley Meier, as well as FOX Weather Exclusive Storm Trackers Brandon Copic and Corey Gerkin pursue a confirmed tornado near Rockton, Illinois.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Belton, Missouri<\/a>, the city reported no injuries, but a lot of damage to homes, power lines and more around the city.<\/p>\n A fire truck responds to reported tornado damage in Belton, Missouri.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Charlie Mizell\/Facebook \/ FOX Weather)<\/p>\n Photos from a neighborhood in Belton, show the potential tornado damage, with siding ripped off of homes and trees fallen. In several photos, people assess the damage, and a fire truck responds.<\/p>\n WHAT IS A SUPERCELL THUNDERSTORM?<\/a><\/p>\n The city said they are still assessing the damage.<\/p>\n The Rochester, Minnesota<\/a>, area sustained damage caused by a tornado that tore through the area.<\/p>\n A confirmed tornado was spotted on the ground just south of Rochester, Minnesota. Those in the area were advised to take shelter immediately. <\/p>\n The Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office said there is a temporary shelter established for residents in need at a local church.<\/p>\n In Wisconsin, approximately 75 homes in the town of Ringle<\/a> sustained damage. No injuries or fatalities have been reported, and all residents are accounted for at this time, according to town officials.<\/p>\n Tornado damage in Ringle, Wisconsin, on Friday, April 17, 2026.<\/p>\n (Marathon County Government \/ FOX Weather)<\/p>\n Also in Wisconsin, the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office shared photos of multiple damaged homes.<\/p>\n A confirmed tornado touched down in Buffalo County on Friday evening. The county reported no injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n More photos from Buffalo County in the city of Montana, Wisconsin, showed damage.<\/p>\n A violent tornado touched down in Montana, Wisconsin, causing significant damage across the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Derek Hanson\u00a0 \/ FOX Weather)<\/p>\n More than 50 million people in the Midwest<\/a> and the Plains were in the path of storms that generated strong tornadoes<\/a>, “monster” hail<\/a> and hurricane<\/a>-force wind<\/a> gusts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOX Weather Exclusive Storm Tracker Brandon Copic drove through a tornado near Rockford, Illinois, on Friday afternoon. Debris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8129,8,918,819,4922,1957,158,1991,9,1958,3015,6175,10929,7,1959,3189,923],"class_list":{"0":"post-17738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-hail","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-illinois","11":"tag-iowa","12":"tag-kansas","13":"tag-midwest","14":"tag-minnesota","15":"tag-missouri","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-oklahoma","18":"tag-severe-weather","19":"tag-stay22","20":"tag-thunderstorms","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-tornadoes","23":"tag-wind","24":"tag-wisconsin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116426358330812637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/673848765_10233196430279953_6574533126308095907_n.jpg\")
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