Severe weather pounds Illinois and Indiana, knocking out power as tornado warning sirens blare

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CHICAGO (AP) — Severe weather cut power to over half a million people in the Chicago area and northwestern Indiana as perilous rainstorms pummeled the region on Tuesday, darkening the sky and carrying extreme wind gusts across state lines.

Tornado warning sirens howled in Illinois and Indiana, and all flights were temporarily stopped in the late morning at Chicago's two major airports. There were numerous reports of wind gusts of 80 mph (128 kph) or more at personal weather stations.

“These are dangerous storms!” the National Weather Service said.

Photos posted on social media showed flooded roads, trees tangled in power lines and homes with gashes in the roof.

After the storm passed through Homewood, a Chicago suburb, Javid Jenkins said he was driving around for gas to fire up a generator to preserve food in his home refrigerator.

“No power. It was very scary. We were down in the basement,” Jenkins, 54, said. ”We're built for snow. We're built for cold. We're not built for this."

More than 600,000 customers lost electricity in Illinois and Indiana, according to poweroutage.us. Lake and Porter counties in Indiana, and Will County, Illinois, south of Chicago, were especially hit hard. Further east in Ohio, more than 166,000 customers were without power.