Storms Kill Multiple People, Cut Power to Over a Million as Flooding Hits Midwest and Mid-Atlantic

A punishing, multiday stretch of severe weather has left multiple people dead across several states and cut power to more than a million homes and businesses as storms tracked from the Midwest into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, according to the Associated Press and CNN.

Indiana got hit hardest. At least seven people died there after days of record-setting flooding, according to the Associated Press. Gov. Mike Braun told reporters Monday that emergency operations were still active in central and east central Indiana even as other parts of the state shifted into recovery. Braun said the state launched a disaster relief fund offering $5,000 grants to residents who need to replace basics like clothing and food.

"We're tracking your needs, and we will get you resources," Braun said. "We want displaced Hoosiers to have a hot meal, comfortable bed and get into air-conditioning."

Jacob Spence, director of the Metropolitan Emergency Services Agency in Indianapolis, said floodwaters on the city's White River had receded but warned the crisis wasn't over. "While we have seen encouraging trends, the work is far from over," Spence said, according to the AP. Indianapolis launched a website to help affected residents, and officials in half a dozen counties urged people to stay off roads except for essential travel.

One Indianapolis resident, Oliver Riggle, 33, told the AP he'd just moved into a camping trailer after living out of his car. Floodwaters nearly tipped the trailer over. "Just having privacy again was a huge deal. I mean, I had a door that locked. I had a roof that was mine," Riggle said. "No one was gonna take it from me, except for apparently Mother Nature."

Ohio was hit by a separate but overlapping weather system. A derecho, a long-lived line of storms with damaging straight-line winds, tore across the Midwest and combined with other storms hitting the central Appalachians, according to CNN. Gov. Mike DeWine declared states of emergency in Perry and Muskingum counties and activated a National Guard high-water rescue unit.

One person died in Roseville, Ohio, a town straddling both counties, after suffering a medical emergency that first responders couldn't reach because the town was "completely surrounded by water," DeWine said. "We are in a very dangerous weather situation that really involves all of Ohio," DeWine said. "It is unusual to see this, but danger can be anywhere in the state."

Ohio Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Sima Merick told CNN that around 200 people in Perry County either left their homes or couldn't get back to them after floodwater rose 6 to 10 feet in low-lying areas, overtopping two bridges. Two swift water rescue teams from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources were deployed Tuesday to help.

Farther east, storms spun up destructive tornadoes and flash flooding across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, according to KSL News, citing CNN affiliate reporting. A man died after being struck by lightning on a beach in Cape Charles, Virginia, according to CNN affiliate WVEC; a woman with him suffered minor injuries.

At least two tornadoes touched down across the Mid-Atlantic, with more likely to be confirmed once National Weather Service damage surveys are complete. Dover, Delaware, declared a state of emergency after a likely tornado caused what the Dover Police Department called "significant damage," including heavy damage to two hotels. Video showed a tornado tearing the roof off a Super Lodge motel; all guests were evacuated to a temporary shelter, police spokesperson Mark Hoffman said.

A tornado also hit Columbia, Pennsylvania, prompting a state of emergency for Columbia Borough. In nearby York County, a high school and six townhomes were damaged and one person suffered a minor injury, according to the York County Office of Emergency Management.

More than 29 million people were placed under flood watches along the Interstate 95 corridor, stretching from southwest Connecticut to northern Delaware, KSL News reported. New York City saw 1.5 to 2.5 inches of rain in about three hours, flooding portions of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. The city's sewer system can handle only about 1.75 inches of rain per hour before flash flooding sets in, according to KSL's reporting.

West Virginia also took a hit, with more than 4 inches of rain over a weekend triggering mudslides, torn-up roads, water rescues and at least one death, the AP reported. Authorities in southern West Virginia found the body of a woman whose vehicle was swept away after making a wrong turn into a flooded area, according to Fayette County Sheriff Jess McMullen.

CBS News reported that storms were still pounding Ohio, Kansas and Nebraska while continuing to hit the Mid-Atlantic, indicating the pattern had not fully cleared even as earlier waves moved offshore.

The National Weather Service said a cold front was expected to push the weather pattern off the East Coast, while extreme heat warnings remained in effect for Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Arizona, Nevada and California. CNN reported that some National Weather Service offices, including in Jackson, Kentucky, experienced communications issues that hindered timely warnings during the worst of the flooding, an operational gap that has not been publicly explained by the agency.

With recovery still underway in Indiana and Ohio, and storm risk lingering into the Mid-Atlantic, the full scope of damage remains unsettled.