BLOG - The Associated Press reports that people were trapped in the basements of homes for a time after a tornado touched down and damaged 6 to 8 homes in the town of Wheatland in Kenosha County, causing an unknown number of injuries.

The turbulent weather caused several other problems in the area, according to the story: at least one car was blown off Highway 50, another vehicle that got a 2-by-4 blown through its windshield, and a high-profile murder trial in Walworth County that had to be evacuated during opening testimony.

EYEWITNESS REPORT

Mary Aiello, 47, had just gotten home from work when she turned on the TV to see the news of the storm. Aiello, who lives on North 22nd Avenue by Highway E in Kenosha, was about half a mile north of where the tornado touched down.

"It passed right through my backyard," Aiello said. "There was no wind, there was no sound at all, it was just dead silence."

Her house and yard have sustained no damage from the storm. But Aiello's niece, 23-year-old Lindsey Chapman, wasn't so lucky.

She was evacuated from her home at 22nd Avenue and Birch Road in Kenosha, right up the block from where the tornado caused a lot of damage, because of gas leaks in the area. She and her brother had been going outside every 5 to 10 minutes, from about 4:20 until the storm hit.

"We had no wind, no rain from about 4 o'clock to about 4:25, and then the sky went relatively black," Chapman said. As the wind picked up, they went inside.

"The whole building shook, and then the lights went on and off a couple times, and then that was it."

RESTAURANT DAMAGED

In the same neighborhood the storm apparently caused some damage to a restaurant. Unconfirmed reports from neighbors said the roof of Tacos El Rey, 2200 Birch Road, was hit by the tornado.

Streets in the area were like a maze, with many roads blocked by authorities, beginning at 22nd Avenue and Highway E heading south, and east to Sheridan Road.

Debris filled some of the streets, including entire trees that had fallen onto the roadway and sidewalks. Curious neighbors swarmed the streets with flashlights to assess the damages between 6 and 7 p.m.

One resident said he was outside talking to a neighbor when they saw the funnel cloud carrying debris pass overhead, about one block over.

"It was pretty incredible," said Nunz Tenuta, who lives on 19th Avenue, near the damaged restaurant.

POWER OUTAGE

Over 5,000 customers are out of power in Kenosha County, according to a WE Energies spokesperson.

Approximately 3,000 are in the city of Kenosha and 1,700 in the Town of Wheatland. Racine County wasn't hit nearly as bad, but around 80 customers are experiencing outages in Caledonia.

"This is a rare January event," said Brian Manthey of WE Energies. "It's really comparable to a summer storm."

Manthey said the damage is severe, but should be easier to control due to its dense concentration.

Five poles are reported down between 15th and 19th Avenue and 15th and 18th Street on Kenosha's north side.

Dozens of WE Energy crews are working closely with local police and fire departments to protect residents and get the areas cleaned up as soon as possible.

At this time, Manthey said there is no exact timeline for when energy will be restored throughout Kenosha County.

EYEWITNESS REPORT (6:35 p.m.)

Jennifer and Gary Dutton live in Brighton which is four to five miles northeast of Wheaton.

Jennifer was headed home from work at First Wachovia in Antioch, Ill. around 4:30 p.m.

"I saw the tail end of the tornado over Paddock Lake," Jennifer said. There were fire engines all over the place near Salem, Jennifer said. "When I got home the clouds were so low. It was an eerie calm and the clouds were really weird. There's no damage here. It's like it dropped all around us."

She came home on Highway 83 which turns into highway 50 at Brass Ball Corners.

Gary works at AAA Environmental in Franklin on 27th Street near the golf dome. He left work around 4:45 p.m. He avoided the interstate and took the back roads home. "I saw what I thought were two funnel clouds over the top of the interstate - up high headed toward Sturtevant." Gary took the West Frontage Road to Seven Mile to highway 45.

There was debris on the roads, tree limbs and leaves but no damage. He also saw what looked straw from hay bales along highway 45.

COUNTY SHERIFF DEPARTMENT UPDATE (6:17 p.m.)

Kenosha County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Gil Benn, the department's public information officer, gave the following rundown at about 5:40 p.m. - just before the Racine area was hit with another tornado warning:

Severe weather struck western Kenosha County, concentrating its power in Wheatland Township, about 4:15 p.m. The system was moving northeast.

"We believe tornadoes did touch down in various areas," Benn said.

Although Benn was not 100 percent sure how many tornadoes were involved, he said he assumed it was more than one "because of the damage."

Also, there were "numerous" reports of tornado funnel sightings, he said.

At that point, no one had reported actually seeing a tornado strike, Benn said, evidently because people were heeding tornado warnings.

Six to eight houses were reported to have had severe damage to total collapse.

There were "numerous" other reports of homes sustaining some damage and of cars being blown from the roadway at Highway 50 near Highway O.

One motorist had severe damage to his car when a piece of flying lumber crashed through the windshield. The driver apparently was not hurt.

There were numerous reports of people with moderate to minor injuries, some of them seeking treatment at Burlington Memorial Hospital.

However, there were no reports of deaths.

Benn said Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth was on the western side of the county and was involved with an emergency operations center that was just being set up. The command post was being set up at the Kenosha County Center at highways 45 and 50.

St. John's Lutheran Church in the Slade's Corners area, at highways 50 and P, opened its doors to anyone who needed help.

The sheriff's department asked that people who needed help or wanted to report damage call the information number (262) 605-7926.

And at about 5:40 p.m. the department was getting information about another storm system moving north-northwest into the Kenosha County area. "We don't know its severity," Benn said.

6:15 p.m. - According to the a local news report, there has been only one tornado in January since 1844, until the storms on Monday. The only other tornado in the first month of the year was in 1967.

FIVE HOUSES DESTROYED (6 p.m.)

Fives houses are reported destroyed and power lines are down in the Town of Wheatland. Other news outlets are reporting 5,000 homes in Kenosha County are without power.

ANOTHER WARNING (5:40 p.m.)

A tornado warning was issued for downtown Racine until 5:50 p.m. That warning is has ended.

REPORTERS DEPLOYED(5:30 p.m.)

Journal Times reporters Pete Wicklund and Paul Sloth and photographers Mark Hertzberg and Greg Shaver are traveling through the area and documenting the aftermath of Monday's storm system.

Wicklund said tornados touched down in northeast Kenosha County, particularly in the Somers area between UW-Parkside and Carthage College. Wicklund said an apartment building in the area was down and said people were reported to be trapped in the debris.

Tornados also struck numerous houses in the community of Wheatland, south of Burlington. A mass casualty trailer deployed to the area at about 5 p.m. in the neighborhood of 298th Avenue and 49th Street.

STORMS ON THE WAY (5:20 p.m.)

Tornado sirens are sounding again in Kenosha County. An employee at the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department said that it was apparently because there were indications of more storms on the way.

"A TORNADO IS NOTHING" (4:30 p.m.)

A Red Cross shelter for people displaced from a fire last Thursday was temporarily turned into a tornado shelter around 4:30 p.m. today as a tornado warning sounded throughout the Racine County.

Yet as Red Cross volunteers run out into the community from a centralized location at Grace Church on Hwy.31, those displaced from the fire remain unphased.

"A tornado is nothing," said Andy France, who was displaced by the fire last week.

UPDATE FROM WHEATLAND (4:45 p.m.)

The Town of Wheatland have been the hardest hit with a report of houses damaged by a severe storm that swept through the area.

An apartment building near Parkside has also been damaged due to the heavy storm that swept through the area this afternoon.

Racine County Emergency Management Director David Maack said he was trying to monitor the situation through the Racine County Sheriff's Department and the various municipalities.

According to what he'd learned so far, Racine County appeared largely untouched. Maack had received reports, so far unconfirmed, of debris dropping around the Ives Grove area. Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant reported no damage.

WISN 12 News has a slideshow of viewer-submitted images of the storm in Kenosha County.

According to a story from the Kenosha News, there have been multiple reports of damage to houses on the city's north side, including a car that was lifted and blown into a house.

WISN 12 slideshow: http://www.wisn.com/slideshow/weather/14996809/detail.html

Kenosha News story: http://www.kenoshanews.com/article_comments/view_comments.php?articleNum=969698346