Kara Berg, The Indianapolis Star 8:25 PM. EDT July 13, 2016
INDIANAPOLIS — A line of thunderstorms that fired up over eastern Kansas and western Missouri Wednesday morning raked the middle of the country with high winds, leaving thousands without power and homes damaged by downed trees.
In Missouri nearly 200,000 customers were without power as the storm with winds of up to 60 mph swept through the St. Louis area.
According to the Ameren Missouri website, 103,000 people were reporting outages as of 6:10 p.m. CT. More than 90,000 were without power on the east side of the river in Illinois, according to Ameren Ill. Many of those outages were reported in Belleville and O'Fallon.
The Ameren Missouri Emergency Operation Center was activated, but there was not estimate for when power will be restored.
The Missouri outage map showed the most outages were in the Oakville, Kirkwood and Webster Groves areas.
Because of the power outages, MetroLink trains were not able to operate between the Fairview Heights and Shiloh-Scott MetroLink stations in Illinois, MetroLink said in a 5:35 p.m. press release. Shuttles were transporting passengers by bus between stations with 30- to 40-minute delays.
As the quick-moving storm swept into Indiana, almost 15,000 Indianapolis Power and Light Company customers were left without electricity.
Marion County and surrounding counties were under a severe thunderstorm warning, while dispatchers fielded calls for downed power lines.
About 800 Duke Energy customers were also without power.
The Indianapolis International Airport reported wind speeds of 61 mph around 6:45 p.m., but Bethany McFarland, spokesperson for the airport, said there were no reports of ground stops for flights.
The National Weather Service predicted showers and thunderstorms until around 2 a.m. Thursday, potentially causing hail, damaging winds and heavy rain.
Two men were killed when torrential rains flooded eight northern Wisconsin counties Monday night and Tuesday.
In Iron County, the Sheriff's Department said Mitch Koski, 56, of Montreal, Wis., died in the flooding.
Koski served as Montreal Assistant Fire Chief and was a former mayor of Montreal, a city of about 800 near Hurley. He was a member of the Montreal Fire Department for 30 years, according to Montreal Fire Chief Mark Haeger.
"The guy lived his entire life helping other people," Haeger said. "Everything he did revolved around the community."
Haeger said Koski heard people were in distress in Saxon Harbor, so he went to help. He was killed during that effort, Haeger said.
Two creeks spill into Lake Superior at Saxon Harbor, and much of the harbor was washed away, damaging or destroying 85 boats and 100 boat slips, according to the Wisconsin State Emergency Operations Center. Haeger said the harbor area received nearly 14 inches of rain in the storm.
In nearby Bayfield County, an 84-year-old Illinois man died Tuesday when his vehicle became submerged in a flooded ditch, according to Bayfield County sheriff's officials, who identified the victim as Delmar Johnson of Tower Lakes, Ill.
A firefighter was able to rescue the man's wife, also 84, who was a passenger. The firefighter went back in the water and pulled Johnson from the vehicle, but couldn't resuscitate him, officials said.
Also in Bayfield County, sheriff's officials said a deputy's vehicle fell into a washed out section of roadway and was carried away by the powerful current. The deputy got out of the vehicle and clung to a tree for more than two hours before he was rescued, authorities said. The deputy is hospitalized in good condition, according to the Sheriff's Department.
Gov. Scott Walker declared a state of emergency in the Northwoods area on Tuesday night after torrential overnight rains flooded parts of the area, closing roads, swamping harbors and washing out at least one bridge. The governor instructed the Wisconsin National Guard and all state agencies to help those affected by the storms.
The storms, that had dropped tornadoes to Minnesota earlier, brought flash flood warnings to Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Sawyer, Washburn and Price counties, the counties included in Walker's declaration.
A wide swath of the Northwoods recorded rain totals nearing double digits with Wascott in Douglas County topping the official list at 11 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
The National Weather Service said more flooding is likely in northern Wisconsin, where rivers and creeks will continue to rise over the next two days.Nearly 200,000 without power in bi-state after storm
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Ameren said they do not have a timetable for returning power to all customers.
Sam Clancy, KSDK 9:05 PM. CDT July 13, 2016
(Photo: Tommy Cigno II - Chippewa and Hampton Intersection, Custom)
Nearly 200,000 outages in the bi-state area have been reported as a storm featuring strong winds swept through the St. Louis Area Wednesday.
According to the Ameren Missouri website, 103,000 people were reporting outages as of 6:10 Wednesday evening. More than 90,000 are without power on the east side of the river according to Ameren Ill. Many of those outages are being reported in Belleville and O'Fallon.
The Ameren Missouri Emergency Operation Center has been activated to respond to the storm outages. In an Ameren Missouri press conference Wednesday night, Dave Wakeman,Senior Vice President of Customer Operations, said they still do not have an estimate for when power will be restored to customers.
Wakeman said about 600 employees are working to assess damage done to the power grid and restore power to customers. He said they were prepared for the storm and were able to hold crews at the end of the day to make them available after the storm ended.
The Missouri outage map showed the most outages were in the Oakville, Kirkwood and Webster Groves areas.
MetroLink experienced delays as a result of the outages. The trains are now up and running with just minor delays.
As Scott Connell reported, the storm produced winds of up to 60 mph.