WASHINGTON: Police were turning residents away from Washington, Illinois, on Monday morning, the day after a series of tornadoes pounded the Midwestern United States, killing eight people across the state and flattening the city of 15,000 people.

Bits of American flags and insulation from destroyed homes clung to trees that had been stripped of their remaining leaves and most of their branches by the Washington twister. Spawned by a fast-moving storm system, the tornado had winds of up to 200 miles per hour (322 kph).

The storm, which killed one person in Washington, destroyed 250 to 500 houses in that city, said Mayor Gary Manier. He said authorities were keeping evacuated residents away from the area out of concern that the remaining structures were dangerously unstable.

“I know it’s frustrating for people,” Manier said amid piles of rubble left by the storm. “I’d be frustrated. I’d want to be looking for pictures.” The storm killed three people in Massac Country, two in Washington County and one in the city of Washington, in Tazewell County, said Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. It produced about 80 tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service.

The tornadoes leveled scores of homes and demolished entire neighborhoods. The National Weather Service confirmed preliminary EF-4 tornado damage in Washington County in southern Illinois, with winds of 166 to 200 miles (267-322 km) per hour.

The unusual late-season storms moved dangerously fast, tracking east at 60 miles per hour (97 kph), with the bulk of the damage spanning about five hours, Thompson said. Remnants of the storm brought rain and wind to the northeastern United States on Monday morning.