{"id":995046,"date":"2026-08-12T00:10:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995046\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T00:10:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:10:25","slug":"severe-weather-in-chicago-area-and-indiana-cuts-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995046\/","title":{"rendered":"Severe weather in Chicago area and Indiana cuts power"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Severe weather cut power to more than half a million people in the Chicago area and northwestern Indiana as perilous thunderstorms and extreme wind gusts pummeled the region Tuesday, causing widespread damage.<\/p>\n

Tornado warning sirens howled as the skies darkened. All flights were temporarily stopped at Chicago\u2019s two major airports, and officials warned of delays as the backlog was cleared. In Ohio, power outages swept the state capital region, and at least one death was reported.<\/p>\n

Photos posted on social media from the Chicago area, and across the state line in Indiana, showed flooded roads, trees tangled in power lines and homes with gashes in their roofs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo power. It was very scary. We were down in the basement,\u201d said Javid Jenkins of Homewood, a Chicago suburb. \u201cWe\u2019re built for snow. We\u2019re built for cold. We\u2019re not built for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenkins, 54, said he was driving around for gas to fire up a generator to preserve food in his refrigerator.<\/p>\n

Forecasters said a wind gust of 99 mph (159 kph) was recorded in Gary, Indiana. Elsewhere there were numerous reports of gusts of 80 mph (128 kph) or more at personal weather stations.<\/p>\n

Preliminary information indicated that the intense system that swept from Iowa into Indiana over several hours qualified as a derecho<\/a>, the National Weather Service\u2019s Storm Prediction Center said Tuesday evening. Derechos are prolonged straight-line wind events that unleash heavy rainfall and travel far distances. The damage they cause is sometimes comparable to the destructive forces of tornadoes or hurricanes.<\/p>\n

The weather service bluntly warned earlier in the day: \u201cThese are dangerous storms!\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 600,000 customers lost electricity in Illinois and Indiana, according to poweroutage.us. Lake and Porter counties in Indiana and Will County, south of Chicago, were especially hard hit. Farther east in Ohio, at least 290,000 customers were without power.<\/p>\n

\u201cTotal devastation. No roof,\u201d said Kerry Hourigan, standing outside her home of 25 years in Tinley Park, another Chicago suburb. \u201cStupid thing, but my focus was I just bought a new barbecue grill, and I have no idea where that is. It\u2019s disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meteorologist Scott Baker said the Midwest was on the outer edge of a \u201cring of fire,\u201d bringing waves of excessive moisture, instability and storms.<\/p>\n

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In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine said a resident of Roseville died during a health emergency when first responders, faced with flooded roads, couldn\u2019t get there. He warned that flood dangers would persist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not something that will end tonight,\u201d DeWine said of the severe weather.<\/p>\n

Dayton, Ohio, set a daily rainfall record with 2.07 inches (5.25 cm), shattering a mark set in 1915, the weather service said. Forecasters said multiple rounds of rain would cause flood hazards in the Ohio Valley through early Friday.<\/p>\n

Officials in Columbus, Ohio, sent local government workers home early ahead of another round of storms. The library in Westerville, Ohio, closed after rain poured into the atrium.<\/p>\n

The fifth day of the 10-day Lake County, Indiana, Fair was canceled, disappointing fans who were hoping to see a professional wrestling event involving people under 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall.<\/p>\n

Nearby in LaPorte County, Indiana, there was a \u201ctremendous amount of tree damage,\u201d Commissioner Joe Haney said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

White reported from Detroit. Associated Press writers Jennifer Garske in Washington, Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Severe weather cut power to more than half a million people in the Chicago area…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":995047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[960,10109,10106,57,1819,1818,6323,2862,398742,398741,120630,50,1574,1573,398740,3883,61,67,132,68,313],"class_list":["post-995046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-chicago","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-general-news","tag-il-state-wire","tag-illinois","tag-in-state-wire","tag-indiana","tag-joe-haney","tag-kerry-hourigan","tag-mike-dewine","tag-news","tag-oh-state-wire","tag-ohio","tag-scott-baker","tag-storms","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-weather"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117079639724000118","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=995046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}