IMAGES: Tornado devastation in Midwest

WASHINGTON, Ill. (AP) – Officials in Illinois don't believe the death toll from yesterday's violent weather will go any higher. Six people died in Illinois, and two more weather-related deaths are confirmed in Michigan.

Dozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms swept across the Midwest in a swift-moving line of storms that flattened entire neighborhoods.

The mayor of the Illinois town of Washington says hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed by a tornado.

One man says his weather radio may have saved his life — because the tornado struck his home while he was in the basement retrieving the radio. Today, he was at a supply store, picking up plywood to board up his blown-out windows.

Authorities have been keeping everyone but residents and emergency workers out of the affected neighborhoods. An overnight curfew kept all but emergency vehicles off the pitch-black roads.

Governor Pat Quinn visited some of the heavily-damaged areas today, and promised all of the assistance the state can provide to victims of what he said were the deadliest November tornadoes in the state's history.