More severe storms are expected to blast parts of the Midwest and the Ohio Valley Wednesday after a deadly windstorm raced through the region Tuesday afternoon and knocked out power to over one million customers at its height.
Damaging winds swept into Illinois, triggering Tornado Warnings across several areas Tuesday afternoon — including Aurora, Joliet, Naperville and downtown Chicago.
A 4-year-old was killed when a tree fell on a home in Geneva Township, Indiana, during severe storms on Tuesday, according to the Jennings County Sheriff’s Office.
In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine confirmed one person was killed after emergency responders were unable to reach the individual during a flooding emergency.
Police in Portage, Indiana, said a home exploded shortly after the storms passed, killing one person.
Investigators are working to determine whether the storms caused the explosion.
Meanwhile, 16 people were struck by lightning at the Grafton Correctional Institution.
Initial reports indicate the lightning strike occurred Tuesday evening as incarcerated individuals were returning from their evening meal.
The individuals were transported to an outside hospital for treatment, including one person who was airlifted. No deaths have been reported in connection with the incident.
The FOX Forecast Center said Tuesday’s storms were determined to be a derecho.
In order to be classified as a derecho, a storm needs to stretch at least 250 miles long and be at least 60 miles wide.
According to the FOX Forecast Center, destructive storms with 90 to 100 mph winds moved across northern Indiana and extreme southern Michigan.
Ground stops were in effect at nearly every major Northeast airport in the evening.
More than 800,000 customers were still without power early Wednesday, with most of the outages concentrated across Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.
On Wednesday, a Level 2 out of 5 severe storm covers central and southern Illinois, Indiana and western Kentucky.
This includes the outskirts of St. Louis, Indianapolis and Louisville, with damaging winds once again being the main concern.
This stormy pattern will remain over the region for much of the week, with thunderstorms tapping into high humidity to produce heavy rain and a flash flood threat as storms repeatedly track over the same areas.
Flood Watches are now in place through Friday morning across portions of Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, northeast Kentucky, western Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and East Tennessee.
Dangerous flooding remained on the ground Tuesday morning, with local reports of active water rescues.
According to the FOX Forecast Center, over 6.5 inches of rain was reported within just a few hours.
All of this comes on the heels of Monday’s destructive storms that brought 65 mph winds to Maryland and Virginia, knocking power out to tens of thousands of customers there.
