Some homeowners in central Illinois were dealing with damage they didn't expect in December, after strong winds from Sunday's severe weather.

The strong winds tore off parts of the roofs off of at least two homes in Pontiac, about 90 miles southwest of Chicago.

A handful of homes sustained major damage in the storm, which left debris scattered all over the neighborhood.

The National Weather Service on Monday was investigating whether the damage was caused by a tornado.

For people in Pontiac, the storm hit like a wild punch.

 "It was just out of nowhere. Just this loud noise, seeing like a wall of gray at the window, and I'm like, 'No,'" Candice White said.

White took cover in her bathroom on Sunday afternoon as a storm plowed through.

"Unfortunately, my tree fell down in the back, and then my neighbor's tree fell on my garage," she said.

She considered herself lucky that her home in the Westview subdivision only took a glancing blow.

"It could have been a lot worse," she said. "The houses are starting to heat back up. Everything's kind of getting back to normal."

The damage was worse one street over. Justin Jesse definitely felt the punch as the storm tore off a large section of his roof.

"This is where the awning would've been. It'd come down probably like, obviously where the concrete ends to here," he said.

He assumes pieces of his awning turned into projectiles.

"Some of the awning took out this neighbor's house," he said.

At the very least, Jesse needs a new roof, and some of his neighbors do, too.

"It looks like the roofs from over there came and blew out the side of that building," White said.

It'll take more than one trash day to clean up the neighborhood.

"It just kind of blows my mind, like how many different pieces of everything are just kind of scattered about," White said.

Whatever hit Pontiac left quite a mark.

"It's more than just a wind gust, I know that," White said.

People living in Pontiac said they never heard tornado sirens on Sunday. While it was still unclear as of Monday afternoon whether a tornado touched down, or other powerful winds caused the damage, homeowners said they have never experienced storm damage like this before.