At a Glance
- Falling trees damaged roofs in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
- Ohio's Sandusky State Theatre collapsed in high winds.
- Several semis were blown over.
- Flooding was also reported in some areas.
More than 450,000 customers across the Upper Midwest still had no electricity Thursday morning after high winds and severe thunderstorms damaged buildings and cars, blew over semis and toppled trees and utility lines.
The bulk of the outages, nearly 300,000, were in Michigan as of 7 a.m. EDT, according to poweroutage.us. More than 100,000 customers were also without power in Ohio and more than 20,000 in Indiana. Another 41,000 homes and businesses were without power in Pennsylvania.
A tornado may have touched down in western Pennsylvania's Beaver County, according to the National Weather Service office in Pittsburgh. Radar detected a debris cloud.
(MORE: Damage Was Caused by a Derecho, a Widespread Destructive Thunderstorm Wind Event)
The likely tornado started in the area of Beaver Falls and traveled northeast between Zelienople and Ellwood City, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The weather service is expected to send a survey team to assess the damage Thursday.
Officials in neighboring Allegheny County reported downed power lines and trees in numerous towns. Several roofs were damaged when trees fell into them, according to tweets from the county.
In Ohio, a portion of Sandusky's State Theatre collapsed because of high winds, WTOL-TV reported. Much of the roof was gone and falling bricks damaged cars parked on the street.
At least two semis were blown over in Gratriot County, Michigan, and one in Zeeland, Michigan, according to media reports. Two trucks blew over in Lagrange County, Indiana, and one near Bryan, Ohio.
A falling tree damaged a home in Zeeland, about 24 miles southeast of Grand Rapids, WXMI-TV reported.
Another video posted by the station showed heavy rainfall and a trampoline blowing across a street.
Further south in Hopkins, Michigan, village president Terry Weik told WOOD-TV he was taking hanging flower baskets down from his porch when a tree fell toward him.
“The wind was blowing like I’ve never seen it before on the front porch,” Weik said. “The tree lifted up, it twisted, and it came at me so quick.”
The tree went through the roof and landed just a few feet from a bed where Weik's son was sleeping. No one was hurt.
The weather was fueled by a combination of Tropical Storm Cristobal leftovers and an upper low.
"The western Great Lakes have gotten two unusual weather systems in the space of 24 hours," meteorologist and Weather Underground blogger Bob Henson said. First came the remnants of Tropical Storm Cristobal, which made their way all the way to Wisconsin.
"Then on Wednesday, an unusually strong upper-level storm for June plowed across the Upper Midwest. This upper low produced winds in thunderstorm downdrafts of more than 80 mph in Colorado over the weekend, and that energy is now ripping across Michigan. The low-level moisture from Cristobal helped to fuel the wind-packing thunderstorms across the Midwest."
A wind gust of 75 mph was clocked Wednesday in Grandville, Michigan, just west of Grand Rapids. A gust of 69 mph was reported in Gary, Indiana.
Two semis blew over within a mile of each other on U.S Highway 127 in Gratriot County, Michigan, the Detroit News reported.
"There are numerous lines and trees and poles that have been affected and brought down by the storm as well as we're dealing with several different accidents," Dan Morden, the county's 911 director, said.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
