A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
People are recovering from storms that hit eastern and southern regions of the country last night. Over the weekend, tornadoes and thunderstorms blasted through the Midwest and left at least three people dead. Here's Illinois Public Media's Abigail Bottar.
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ABIGAIL BOTTAR, BYLINE: It's recovery time in Effingham. Residents are assessing the damage the tornado caused in the southern Illinois city last week. There's miles of debris and flattened buildings. Michael Yager is out looking for anything salvageable from his business, a Corvette parts store and museum. He was at home when the tornado touched down.
MICHAEL YAGER: I couldn't even get out of my neighborhood. There was trees and just all kinds of stuff down. So as soon as I could get out here, you know, my insurance agent was already on the phone with me. He's like, I'ma need you out there. You know, we'll see what's going on. And we get out here, and yeah, it was quite literally gone.
BOTTAR: Over the weekend, there were more storms in the Midwest before they moved further east and south. Officials say at least three people died, two in mobile homes in rural Illinois and another person in Kansas. Illinois state climatologist Trent Ford says severe weather in the state has been surpassing records. On average, there's been about 54 tornadoes a year, but Ford says that number has skyrocketed in recent years.
TRENT FORD: It is almost assuredly over 150 now, given Sunday's events.
BOTTAR: Historically, twisters are found more frequently further west in what's called Tornado Alley. Steve Nesbitt heads the department of climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He says it may be too soon to tell if Tornado Alley is actually moving east and whether climate change has anything to do with it.
STEVE NESBITT: Certainly, we have to be very careful starting to attribute these pattern changes that we're seeing. But it is consistent with a lot of the sort of details that we would expect in a climate change scenario.
BOTTAR: The National Weather Service says tornado season typically runs from May to June. So with the end of the month approaching, the weather might not be as severe for communities that were hard hit by tornado season.
For NPR News, I'm Abigail Bottar in Urbana, Illinois.
(SOUNDBITE OF REALIZER'S "AROUND") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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