CLINTON - A 30-foot section of roof blew off a Clinton motel Friday afternoon as a series of severe thunderstorms rolled through Central Illinois, dumping heavy rain and hail and knocking down tree limbs and power lines. | Photo gallery | Send your photos

The roof of the Town and Country Motel on Clinton's west edge was damaged about 4 p.m. Part of it ended up on a fence about 50 feet away, and another portion of it dangled from some power lines.

"The main thing is that nobody was injured," said motel owner Dan Imeri. "You can replace things like roofs, cars and property. You can't replace people, though, and so that's what I'm glad about."

Ameren reported about 36,000 customers statewide were left without power about 8 p.m. in the immediate aftermath of the storms, according to a statement issued by spokesman Leigh Morris. About 200 were in the Lincoln area and about 80 in the Kenney area, but most of the outages were along two lines: from Quincy northwest to Ottawa; and from Jacksonville east through Decatur to Danville and Paris.

While wind speeds of 70 mph were common, the only structural damage reported Friday night in the Pantagraph area was to the motel and to a house near Mansfield, said Ed Shimon, meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Lincoln.

There were no injuries, he said.

A another storm cell possibly carrying a funnel cloud passed over Clinton about 6 p.m., delaying the start of the American Cancer Society Relay for Life at Clinton High School for about half an hour.

"My back fence was totally destroyed, but other than that and the motel, I think we escaped most of the major damage," said Clinton Mayor Ed Wollet.

Rainfall of 1.5 to 2 inches was reported along a band from Mackinaw to Anchor, Shimon said. While those totals were for 3 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, most of that rainfall came in the afternoon, he said.

Tremont received 2.3 inches of rain, and about an inch fell at Clinton, Gibson City and Roanoke, he said. Flanagan had less than an inch, and Lincoln received only 0.38 of an inch, Shimon said.

One-inch hailstones fell at Tremont and Clinton, and Bloomington saw some at 0.75 of an inch.

There two brief tornado touchdowns in Vermilion County, but no damage was reported, Shimon said.