One person has died in US storms, a million residents were left without power

Severe storms killed one person in Portage, Indiana, on Tuesday and left more than 1 million electricity customers without power across four states, officials and outage data showed.

The death occurred during a suspected house explosion and fire around 12:20 p.m. in Portage, about 30 miles southeast of Chicago, police said, according to NBC News. Police said weather is suspected of playing a role, but the cause remained under investigation.

Portage Police Capt. Rob Maynard called it “probably the most severe weather event that any of us here can remember.” Fire Chief Chris Crail said, “When this call came in, everything was breaking free,” and Police Chief Mike Candiano said officers parked a mile away and ran toward the home because trees blocked roads.

The National Weather Service said two tornadoes were confirmed near Chicago, one in southern Cook County, Illinois, and another in eastern Will County, Illinois. Both had damage consistent with EF-1 tornadoes, the weather service said.

Poweroutage.us showed outages across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee on Tuesday evening, with most in Ohio and Indiana. Utility provider AEP said wind gusts topped 80 mph in the Columbus, Ohio, area, trees fell on power lines and more than 2,000 workers, including crews from other states, were working to restore electricity.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said response teams saw “disaster-like conditions” after storms hit Tuesday morning and warned that power could be out for days. Ohio Gov. Mark DeWine declared an emergency in Perry and Muskingum counties because of flooding, and his office said water rescues and evacuations had taken place.