A series of severe storms triggered tornado warnings and tornado watches in much of central and northern Illinois on March 19, moving out of the area by late evening. The storms caused a smattering of power outages in northwest Indiana and widespread damage across the Chicagoland area.

Communities from the Midwest to the Great Lakes region are picking up the pieces after severe weather barreled across the region on Wednesday.

AccuWeather's Damien Lodes was forecasting live on the evening of March 19 as tornado-warned storms barreled across Illinois.