A line of ferocious storms swept across the US Midwest, turning deadly as it tore a path of destruction from the Chicago area into Ohio. At least three people were killed, including a four-year-old child, and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were left without power. Officials described some of the damage as among the worst weather ever seen in the affected communities, and forecasters warned that another round of severe weather was on the way for many of the same areas.
The Chicago area bore some of the most violent conditions, with winds topping 90 miles per hour and multiple tornadoes touching down. The powerful gusts flipped a semi-truck onto its side and uprooted massive trees across the region. In at least one case, downed power lines sparked a fire that engulfed a home in flames, while other houses were torn apart by the force of the wind, leaving residents to grapple with widespread structural damage.
In Columbus, Ohio, the storms were strong enough to flip a car on a highway, according to dramatic video shared by the state's Department of Transportation. Wind gusts in the city reached 82 miles per hour, the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane. Witnesses compared the roar of the storm to a freight train, as blinding rain made driving treacherous and debris was thrown across roads and neighborhoods during the height of the event.
One of the deadliest scenes unfolded in the city of Portage, Indiana, about 40 miles south of Chicago, where one person was killed after a house exploded. Officials believe the weather was a factor in the blast and described the storm as one of the worst events in the city's history. A long-time resident said that after roughly 50 years in the area, it was probably one of the worst things the community had ever had to endure.
Elsewhere in Indiana, a four-year-old child was killed after a tree fell on a home, underscoring the danger posed by the toppling trees and flying debris. The same storm system triggered heavy downpours and flash flooding that washed out roads and left drivers stranded, with water rising to the roofs of vehicles in Perry County, Ohio. In nearby Roseville, one person died after floodwaters prevented emergency crews from reaching them in time.
The storms also disrupted institutions and infrastructure across the region. At an Ohio correctional facility, 16 inmates were taken to the hospital after a lightning strike, while in Chicago the air traffic control tower at Midway had to be evacuated amid tornado warnings. At the peak of the outages, nearly one million customers across Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky were left without electricity, and officials cautioned that some areas could remain in the dark for days.
Even as communities began to assess the damage, forecasters warned the threat was far from over. Additional severe storms were expected to fire up across the upper Midwest and the Ohio Valley, with cities such as St. Louis, Lincoln, Indianapolis, Louisville and Cincinnati back in the target zone. Meteorologists placed the region under a level two of five risk, citing the potential for damaging wind gusts, large hail and brief tornadoes through the afternoon and evening.
