Midwest Storms Kill Several, Cut Power to Hundreds of Thousands, Indiana Sees 1-in-1000-Year Flooding

A stalled weather front has been pounding the Midwest since Tuesday, August 11, and as of Thursday, August 13, it still hasn't let up. The result: at least four confirmed deaths, hundreds of thousands of homes without power, and towns in eastern Indiana that look like they've been hit by a slow-motion tsunami.

Start with the death toll. A 4-year-old boy was killed when a tree fell on his home in Geneva, Indiana, during Tuesday's storms, according to the Jennings County Sheriff's Office. In Roseville, Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine said a resident died during a health emergency because flooded roads kept first responders from reaching them in time. In Portage, Indiana, officials are still investigating whether the severe weather caused a house explosion that killed one person. Fox Weather also reported at least one flood death in Indiana on Wednesday.

Tuesday's storm wasn't just heavy rain. It was a derecho, a rare and long-lived windstorm, according to CNN. That system alone knocked out power to more than one million customers at its peak, Fox Weather reported. Sixteen incarcerated people were hospitalized after lightning struck a prison complex southwest of Cleveland during that storm, the Ohio Department of Corrections said. DeWine said four remained hospitalized Wednesday, one with severe injuries.

Indiana bore the worst of it

By Thursday, PowerOutage.us data cited by The Guardian showed roughly 540,000 homes and businesses without power across the region, with Indiana hit hardest at more than 267,000 outages, about 8% of the state's 3.3 million customers. Fox Weather put the overnight Thursday figure at more than 400,000 customers still out across Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, with much of that tied directly to Tuesday's derecho damage rather than new storms.

Northern Indiana Public Service Company, a unit of NiSource, took the biggest hit: about 258,885 customers, or 55% of its roughly 468,000 Indiana customers, lost power. The utility said restoration could take days in some areas because of extensive damage to poles, lines and downed trees.

Duke Energy brought in 1,000 additional workers to help restore power to more than 171,000 customers around greater Cincinnati, according to Andy Cassidy, the company's storm director, who said crews would work alongside Ohio and Kentucky teams to get service back as fast as possible.

Then came the rain, and it was historic

While Indiana was still cleaning up from the derecho, a separate and far more extreme event hit Wednesday: what CNN described as a 1-in-1000-year rainfall event, meaning under normal conditions it has just a 0.1% chance of happening in any given year. New Castle, Indiana, received more than 11 inches of rain in 32 hours, CNN reported.

Cambridge City, about an hour east of Indianapolis, reported what officials called "catastrophic" flooding, warning residents they could lose utilities for days and issuing a boil-water advisory, according to CNN. Video showed floodwater covering entire streets, submerging cars and rising past windows.

In Muncie, officials worked to evacuate an area covering roughly 200 homes, city spokesperson Amber Greene told CNN. About a dozen people were pulled out by boat, with responders returning for more. The city's first day of school was postponed because of the flooding.

Fox Weather's National Weather Service data showed five separate Flash Flood Emergencies issued across eastern Indiana on Wednesday alone, and some state roads there remained closed Thursday morning.

It's not over

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center issued a Level 2 out of 5 severe thunderstorm risk Thursday for central and southern Iowa into central Illinois, covering Des Moines, Peoria and Springfield, according to Fox Weather. A broader Level 1 risk stretched from the Central Plains into the Midwest and southern Ohio Valley.

More concerning for already-soaked Indiana: NOAA's Weather Prediction Center issued a Level 3 out of 4 flash flood risk for the central and southeastern part of the state Thursday, including Indianapolis and western Cincinnati, with a second round of heavy rain expected Thursday night into Friday morning that could bring even worse flooding on top of ground that's already saturated.

CNN reported the region won't get a meaningful break from the storms until this weekend. Indiana Governor Mike Braun said multiple roads had washed out. Ohio's DeWine, who toured flood damage by helicopter Wednesday, called the scale of it unprecedented, saying communities in Perry County that have dealt with water problems before are now facing something categorically worse.

The open question heading into the weekend is how much more rain Indiana's already-overwhelmed rivers and drainage systems can take before the flooding gets worse than it already is.