Approximately 540,000 homes and businesses across the US Midwest experienced power cuts on Thursday as severe storms impacted the region, according to data from PowerOutage.us.
Indiana has been the most affected state, with over 267,000 outages reported. This represents about 8% of the state's roughly 3.3 million customers.
Northern Indiana Public Service Company (Nipsco) was Indiana's hardest-hit utility, with services cut to around 258,885 homes and businesses, or about 55% of its customers in the state. Nipsco stated that it is assessing damage, which includes downed poles, power lines, and trees, and warned that restoration could take days in some areas due to the extensive damage.
Weather forecaster AccuWeather has indicated that severe thunderstorms will continue to threaten the plains, midwest, and east into Thursday, bringing risks of damaging wind gusts and potential flash flooding from repeated downpours.
First responders have been involved in numerous water rescues since Wednesday. In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine deployed 40 Ohio Army National Guard members to assist in two counties east of Columbus.