text: New aerial photos show the trail of destruction a tornado inflicted on a small Illinois farming community. Residents from Fairdale, an unincorporated town 80 miles northwest of Chicago, were told they could return to their homes on Saturday to salvage what they could. But buildings in the settlement were virtually flattened when the vortex slammed into the area at around 7pm on Thursday night. Officials reported that 17 of the 50 buildings in the town are completely destroyed, while the other 33 have all been damaged in some way. Geraldine M Schultz, 67, and Jacklyn K. Klosa, 69, were killed in her home by the storm, authorities announced, while around a dozen people were injured. This aerial photo shows a path of destruction, after a tornado swept through the small town of Fairdale, Illinois . Residents from Fairdale, an unincorporated town 80 miles northwest of Chicago, were told they could return to their homes on Saturday to salvage what they could . The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office bused residents back to the scene of the devastation so they could begin to take stock of what was left of their property. Seeing the wreckage up close for the first time since Thursday's storms left some amazed that they survived. 'I thought my parents were dead,' said 32-year-old Adam Davis, who hopped into his truck Thursday and raced along with the tornado in the hopes of getting to his parents' house and rescuing them before the twister struck. He found them standing in their doorway frozen in disbelief and grabbed them just in time. On Saturday, he was helping collect what could be salvaged from his childhood home, now full of debris, its roof ripped off and its windows broken. 'It's not necessarily the mementos yet; it's the essentials for now. One step at a time,' he said. Eight tornadoes roared across northern and central Illinois during Thursday's storms, the National Weather Service confirmed Saturday. The strongest hit Fairdale, where two people were killed. That tornado also injured 22 people. Debris surrounds a plot where a house once stood in the farming community. Officials reported that 17 of the 50 buildings in the town are completely destroyed, while the other 33 have all been damaged in some way . The weather service gave it a preliminary EF4 rating — its second strongest — with winds of between 180 and 200 mph. It was a half-mile wide and remained on the ground for at least 28.7 miles, a record long path for that part of Illinois. Al Zammuto, a 60-year-old machinist, was preparing to inspect what was left of the roof on a former schoolhouse that he had been transforming into his home over the past year. He will have to start over. 'I don't know how much of the roof came off,' he said. 'I'm going to climb a ladder later today and see.' In all, some 70 buildings were destroyed or damaged in Fairdale, authorities said. Another 50 buildings were hit in nearby Rochelle. All buildings have been searched, but not all residents have been accounted for, so cadaver dogs are being used in parts of DeKalb County, the Illinois State Police said late Friday. The tornado blew numerous vehicles from nearby interstates, and troopers helped rescue a trapped driver in an overturned semi-trailer. As the cleanup began, tales of survival continued to emerge. The vortex created a path through the fields and wiped out a house as it made its way to the town. A building is left standing in a property above . Kelly Newman, 46, lost her Rochelle home. For her, the storm began with a moment of playful wonder at the size of the hail. She ran outside to collect some of the pieces to put it in the freezer to show her children. 'Then I noticed to the southwest there was a huge black funnel thing, but it didn't look like a tornado because it was just way too wide,' she said. But the telltale train-like roar sent them and their 19-year-old daughter running for the basement. The house cracked and collapsed around them, raining down debris and a dusting of what she described as 'muddy soot.' The family survived, and several police officers helped free her husband, who had been trapped nearly upside down between two collapsed walls. 'We're alive, we were spared. Our lives were saved,' she said. A destroyed house is seen in Fairdale is pictured on Friday, hours after a tornado ripped through the community . Candy Trudell searches for her belongings in the rubble after a tornado struck the town of Rochelle, Illinois the evening before . A chair stands beside a pile of debris, including fallen tree branches, as the cleanup in Rochelle begins . An American flag is planted in debris, which is all that's left of the home where Kelly Newman and her family lived on Route 64 in Rochelle, .
target: Fairdale, a town 80 miles northwest of Chicago, was virtually flattened when the vortex hit on Thursday evening .
  Residents were bused back to their homes by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office in a bid to salvage what they could .
  Officials reported that 17 of the 50 buildings in the town are completely destroyed while the other 33 are damaged .
  Geraldine M Schultz, 67, and Jacklyn K. Klosa, 69, were killed inside one of the homes by the storm .