OTTAWA, Ill. – A northern Illinois man has died after being struck by a tree during powerful a Midwestern storm, raising the state's toll to three.
Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood says 31-year-old David A. Johnson of Ottawa was pronounced dead Wednesday afternoon at a Peoria hospital. The coroner says Johnson died of severe head trauma.
Harwood says Johnson was working in a backyard with his spouse and father-in-law Tuesday when the storm uprooted a tree that landed on all three. Johnson's 76-year-old father-in-law, Wayne Tuntland, died at the scene. Johnson's spouse was treated and released from a hospital.
Seventy-one-year-old Thomas McCord also died Tuesday when an apparent tornado struck a building in Crossville, in southern Illinois.
In Missouri, a 24-year-old man also died when a tornado hit his vehicle along Interstate 55.