Severe weather moving east Tuesday brings heavy rain, high winds and possibly tornadoes to parts of the Midwest, a day after a storm battered the southern Plains, killing at least one person and damaging dozens of homes across the region. You will be visited.
About 13 million people in parts of Indiana, northern Kentucky and western Ohio were warned of an increased risk of severe thunderstorms early Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.
The roughly 60,000-square-mile area could face a number of hazards, including frequent lightning strikes and strong winds, according to the National Weather Service. There was also a heightened threat of tornadoes and at least 2 inches of hail in the area.
A wider region of the Midwest, including about 16 million people across parts of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, faced some risk of severe weather Tuesday.
Meteorologist Aaron Updike of the National Weather Service in Indianapolis, one of the cities at increased risk, said the severe weather would arrive in the area in the morning and dissipate shortly thereafter.
“Redevelopment is scheduled to take place this afternoon and evening,” he said. “And that's our main focus.” All the usual severe weather threats could occur Tuesday, he added.
The Bureau of Meteorology also warned that a storm moving through the region could bring heavy rain and cause flash flooding in some areas. Meteorologists say urban areas, roads, streams and low-lying areas are most vulnerable.
The tornado threat was moving steadily eastward. More than 2 million people from Mississippi to Illinois remained under tornado watches Tuesday morning, with some areas expected to remain under tornado watches until 8 a.m.
At least 15 tornadoes were reported to have struck parts of the Plains region Monday night. A tornado about 2 miles wide struck Barnsdall, Oklahoma, a town about 40 miles northwest of Tulsa, killing one person, Osage County officials said.
Although it was difficult to assess the tornado's damage before dawn, one Osage County official said the tornado destroyed about a third of the small city of about 1,000 people and left multiple people injured. Ta. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported that up to 40 homes in the town were damaged. The tornado also blew off the roof of a nursing home in Barnsdall, but none of the residents were injured or killed, officials said.
The tornado also caused power outages in at least three states. More than 15,000 customers were without power Tuesday morning, mainly in northeastern Oklahoma, about 15,000 in Missouri, and about 15,000 in Arkansas, according to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates information on power companies across the United States. Approximately 10,000 homes lost power.
In Bartlesville, Oklahoma, about 72 miles north of Tulsa, emergency responders are rescuing scores of people trapped at a Hampton Inn and restoring power lines that were down early Tuesday morning, city officials said. . Minor injuries were also reported.
Rescue efforts were also underway on the Osage Nation reservation, where authorities warned residents to stay away from roads and affected areas.
Johnny Diaz, judson jones and John Yoon Contributed to the report.