Officials said that all of its staff in East Peoria, Washington, Pontiac or Joliet – all at the centre of the storm’s worst, where nearly 100 tornados were reported in a short span of time Sunday – were unhurt.

However, the company urged any Cat workers personally impacted by the storms to contact their respective supervisors.

The OEM also said its Caterpillar Foundation was engaged in this disaster, and that any affected Caterpillar employees who needed help or who wished to donate could work directly with the company’s Red Cross and Salvation Army partners who were on scene in those areas.

Caterpillar also has equipment and a team of operators from the Peoria Proving Grounds on standby, it said.

The storm system was largely out of the Midwest and northeast US Tuesday morning, though thousands in several states, even those unaffected by the tornados, were still without power due to heavy winds and thunderstorms.