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Severe storms with tornadoes whip through Midwest; about 160K without power in Indiana

Last Updated 5 months by Amnon J. Jobi | Amnon Front Page

CHICAGO (AP) — Storms spawning multiple tornadoes blew through Iowa, Illinois — including Chicago — and Indiana, Monday downing trees and power poles and cutting power to more than 460,000 customers and businesses.

The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado hit Des Moines, Iowa, as storms rolled through Monday afternoon and into the night. Des Moines police were responding to calls about utility poles that had apparently snapped in two.

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The storms then moved east into northern Illinois, including the Chicago area, which saw multiple tornado warnings, wind and drenching rain. Multiple tornadoes were reported along the line of storms that moved through the city, according to the National Weather Service.

Nearly 390,000 customers were left without power in northern Illinois alone, according to poweroutage.us.

The National Weather Service in Chicago had to take cover for a time and later reported extensive damage in the city.

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A flash flood warning also was issued in the Chicago area into early Tuesday. Flooding was expected in creeks, streams, drainage ditches, streets and underpasses as rain continued Monday night.

Storms moved into Indiana and Michigan later Monday night, prompting additional alerts including multiple tornado warnings in Indiana.

Indiana impact

As of 5 a.m. EDT, there were about 160,000 people in Indiana without power, according to poweroutage.us. The largest outages were in Lake, Porter, and Starke counties. In Starke County alone, more than half of the households were without power early Tuesday morning.

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In the Indianapolis area, about 5,600 AES Indiana customers had no electricity at 5 a.m., while Duke Energy was working to restore power to roughly 4,000 people in the Lafayette area and about 1,000 people in the area just northwest of Indianapolis.

Check out today’s Storm Track 8 weather blog for the latest forecast and a look at the week ahead.