More dangerous storms track across Midwest states ravaged by rare, deadly derecho and flooding

By Meteorologists Dakota Smith, Briana Waxman, Chris Dolce, and Kate S. Petersen

(CNN) — Storms on Tuesday flooded towns in Ohio and morphed into a rare, deadly derecho that left a trail of destruction across the Midwest.

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At least one person is dead and more than 1 million homes and businesses lost power after the derecho — an unusually long-lasting windstorm — punished a 300-mile stretch of the region with hurricane-force wind gusts.

More dangerous weather is underway Wednesday in the Midwest and Ohio Valley. New flash flood and severe thunderstorm warnings are in effect and parts of eastern Indiana have received up to 6 inches of rain Wednesday morning.

Here’s the latest:

• House explosion: One person was found dead after an apparent explosion and house fire in Portage, Indiana, after the derecho moved through the area. The house was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. The cause remains under investigation, but police suspect trees knocked down by the storm may have damaged natural gas lines.
• Child killed in Indiana: A 4-year-old boy died in southeastern Indiana on Tuesday after a tree fell on a house in Geneva Township, according to Cody Low, chief deputy for the Jennings County sheriff’s department. The child was “either entrapped or injured” when the 911 call came in around 3:30 p.m., but when responders arrived they found the child dead in the home, Low told CNN.
• Lightning strike at Ohio prison: Sixteen inmates were taken to a hospital after lightning struck Grafton Correctional Institution in Lorain County, Ohio, Tuesday evening as they returned from dinner, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said. No deaths were reported, the department said, but seven inmates remain hospitalized, including one in serious condition.
• Widespread power outages: More than 700,000 homes and businesses across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia remained without power Wednesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us. Outages in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio alone topped 600,000. Wind gusts over 90 mph were clocked in parts of Chicago and northwest Indiana, toppling trees and power lines.
• Ohio villages flooded: Residents of Roseville were “urged to evacuate” after two months of rain fell in just two days. Floodwater “completely surrounded” the village, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday. Videos on social media showed rescuers in rafts navigating powerful currents of water coursing through the streets of nearby Crooksville, a village in the Perry County. A rare flash flood emergency – the highest level of flash flood warning – was issued for both villages early Tuesday.

Flooding forces hundreds from homes

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency in both Perry and Muskingum counties Tuesday afternoon and activated a National Guard high-water rescue unit for those areas.

One person died in Roseville, which straddles both counties, after suffering an emergency and first responders were unable to reach them, DeWine said at a news conference Tuesday.

“We are in a very dangerous weather situation that really involves all of Ohio. It is unusual to see this, but danger can be anywhere in the state,” DeWine warned.

As of Tuesday morning, around 200 people were forced to leave or were unable to access their homes after floodwater rose 6 to 10 feet in low-lying areas of Perry County, Ohio Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Sima Merick told CNN. Flooding also overtopped two bridges there.

Two swift water rescue teams from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources were deployed to assist with rescues Tuesday morning, according to Merick, joining response teams from adjacent counties.

Flooding damaged homes, vehicles, roads and a railroad around Confluence, Pennsylvania, local officials said. Ten people were rescued from a flooded home near Confluence Tuesday morning, fire chief Tyler Byrd told CNN. Another person was also rescued from the roof of a vehicle, he said. The area saw 3 to 5 inches of rain over several hours early Tuesday.

More rain targets the same storm-weary areas

Flooding rainfall forecast

The area at risk of flooding rainfall on Wednesday and Thursday is largely the same as previous days and extends from the Midwest to the central and southern Appalachians.

A lot of rain could fall in a short amount of time and cause dangerous flash flooding in localized parts of the risk areas on both days. We’ve already seen that come to pass in eastern Indiana and northern Kentucky.

Storms could produce rainfall rates of up to 3 inches per hour, with localized totals over 5 inches where multiple rounds repeatedly track over the same locations. Even lower rainfall totals could quickly cause flooding where the ground is saturated from deluges earlier this week.

Such extreme rainfall is becoming more common in a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution. A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture that storms can tap into and wring out in more intense spurts.

Showers and storms could linger into Friday in parts of the Ohio Valley, Appalachians and Midwest, but the greatest threat of additional flooding will shift north into the Upper Mississippi Valley.

Severe storm forecast

A Level 2 of 5 severe storm threat stretches from the Ohio Valley westward into Midwest on Wednesday.

Clusters of storms with damaging winds in Iowa and Illinois Wednesday morning will track across these areas through the afternoon. Other storm clusters could also develop before it arrives.

Wednesday’s storms are not expected to be as widespread and destructive as Tuesday’s derecho, but they could still topple trees and cause new power outages.

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CNN’s Avni Trivedi contributed to this report.