Severe thunderstorms rolled through southern Michigan and northwest Ohio on Monday, leaving more than 680,000 customers without power and killing two people, including a 14-year-old girl who was electrocuted by a downed power line, the authorities said.
A line of storms, which had dissipated by Monday night, produced wind gusts from 60 to 80 miles per hour in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, prompting severe thunderstorm warnings throughout the day, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
In Toledo, Ohio, a woman was killed by a tree that fell during the storm, Sterling Rahe, a spokesman for the Toledo Fire & Rescue Department, said in a statement.
The woman, who was not identified by the authorities, was found dead in the backyard of her home, where the tree had fallen, Mr. Rahe said.
The 14-year-old girl, who was also not identified by the authorities, had been walking with a friend in the backyard of her home in Monroe, Mich., about 40 miles southwest of Detroit, when she thought she smelled a bonfire and reached for a stick, unaware that it was a charged electrical line, the Monroe Public Safety Department said in a statement. She was found dead by rescue workers.
As of Monday night, about 640,000 customers were without power in Michigan, according to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates data from utilities across the United States. The storms moved through Detroit, which might explain why so many people lost power, Mr. Oravec said. In Indiana, about 26,000 customers were without power; in Ohio, there were about 20,000, according to the website.
More storms were forming in central Illinois and northwestern Indiana on Monday night, and some areas could be hit with another round of strong winds on Tuesday, Mr. Oravec said.
Thunderstorms are typical in the Midwest during the summer. On Monday, hot and humid air helped lines of severe thunderstorms form, Mr. Oravec said.
“If the atmospheric conditions are right, they can race out really quickly,” he added. “And the high winds can develop with the thunderstorms — and that’s what happened today.”
