A wave of severe storms and several reported tornadoes across the Midwest and the East Coast wreaked devastation, leaving at least one person dead in upstate New York and an elderly couple dead in Illinois on Tuesday.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency throughout the state after the storms caused widespread destruction, wrecking buildings and trees and leaving more than 100,000 households without power, according to poweroutage.us.
One person died in Canastota, a village around 25 miles east of Syracuse, according to an emergency declaration. “Numerous trees and wires” were ripped down in the village, and several roads were impassable, as some areas were under evacuation.
Farther east, the storms ripped through Rome, a city of 31,000, demolishing houses and uprooting trees.
‘Like a war zone’
Rome Mayor Jeffrey Lanigan said the storm wreaked havoc on the town’s historic downtown, pulling down the steeples of two 19th century churches and permanently changing the city skyline.
“Honestly, it looks like a war zone,” Lanigan said at a news conference on Tuesday evening.
“It tugs on your heartstrings,” he said.
Officials warned Rome residents to avoid traveling on the streets and to be wary of downed power lines, which could be active.
Hochul posted on X that she was in touch with local officials and would deploy extra resources to impacted areas.
The National Weather Service in Binghamton said it would conduct a storm survey in the town on Wednesday to investigate reports of a tornado. The weather service issued a tornado warning for the area on Tuesday afternoon.
“When something like this happens, you tend to believe it was a tornado,” Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said at the news conference.
The weather service in Buffalo confirmed that a tornado touched down in the city of Canandaigua, about 100 miles west of Rome, just a day earlier. With a rating of EF-0, the twister traveled around three quarters of a mile, pulling up trees around Canandaigua Lake, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.
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Flash floods soak Midwest, leaving 2 dead
Meanwhile, floodwaters inundated parts of Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois as the area reeled from thunderstorms that soaked the region and spun up several tornadoes.
A husband and wife, both 88, were left dead after a flood washed away their car in rural Illinois, on Tuesday afternoon.
The couple’s sinking vehicle was spotted by a 70-year-old man, who local deputies were able to pull out of the flash flood that struck around 35 miles north of downtown St. Louis, according to the Jersey County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities later found the woman dead inside her car, and her husband’s body on a nearby bank.
East of St. Louis, around 200 residents of Nashville, Illinois, were evacuated amid the “imminent failure” of a local dam after the area was hit with more than 6 inches of rain, local officials said. By Tuesday evening, the “immediate safety concern” had passed, and a nearby interstate highway was reopened, according to the Washington County Emergency Management Agency.
The flooding came after a derecho caused severe storms and tornadoes over the region on Monday. A derecho is a rare and destructive wind storm that can bring rapid thunderstorms and showers.
The National Weather Service confirmed 11 tornadoes moved through northern Illinois and northwest Indiana that night, including one near Chicago O’Hare International Airport, forcing travelers to shelter in place.
The weather service also confirmed an EF-1 tornado traveled near Des Moines on Monday at more than 100 mph, leaving behind widespread damage and knocking out power, the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Severe storms devastate upstate New York as flash floods hit Midwest
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