Power crews are starting to head home after working long hours restoring electricity across east-central Illinois. Ameren called in help from across the country because of the large number of outages after storms raked the county Thursday evening. At one point there were over 12-thousand customers without power in Vermilion County. As of mid-morning today (Monday, June 15, 2026) that number had dropped to 8 outages affecting 8 customers in Vermilion County and 5 outages affecting 15 customers in Champaign County according to Ameren’s online outage map.
Crews helping to restore power in Vermilion County came from as far away as Florida, Alabama, Connecticut, Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky. Ameren’s facility along Georgetown Road (Illinois route one) at Tilton has been the focal point for dispatching crews where needed.
A National Weather Service survey team confirmed that an EF1 tornado touched down Thursday evening near Fithian. It traveled 13.6 miles causing significant damage to some outbuildings where it started. Kickapoo State Recreation Area had an estimated 250 trees damaged or destroyed during the storm, but the survey team believes that damage was caused by straight-line winds of 80 to 100 miles per hour. (See the other story on Vermilioncountyfirst.com regarding the situation at Kickapoo Park.)
The National Weather Service says the EF1 tornado in northern Vermilion County on Thursday started southwest of Hoopeston. It had estimated wind speed up to 110 miles per hour and was on the ground for 8 minutes. The storm skirted the south edge of Hoopeston as it headed toward Cheneyville. Damage in the Cheneyville area is believed to have been caused by downdraft winds up to 100 miles per hour as the twister lifted before heading into Indiana.
(The photo at the top of this story shows multiple crews assisting with restoring power in the 700 block of North Gilbert Street in Danville Sunday. The workers are some who traveled from out-of-state to help Ameren crews.)
