Disaster Declaration

More than 2,500 residents in the Nashville area were still without power on Saturday afternoon, Ameren’s outage map showed.

The same storm system that hit Edwardsville and ravaged areas in Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee first reached tornado status near the community of Defiance.

Editor's Note: The story was originally published in the Belleville News-Democrat.Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday issued a “disaster proclamation”…