5 Dead in Midwest as Storms Spawn Flooding and Lightning

A band of thunderstorms from Michigan to Pennsylvania unleashed high winds and driving rain, flooding Ohio River communities with as much as 10 feet of water Friday and disrupting flights from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

The storms were blamed for the deaths of five people, officials said.

Hundreds of residents fled their homes in Steubenville, Ohio, and across the Ohio River in Follansbee, W. Va., because of the flooding. The North Ohio Valley Air Authority reported that 5.71 inches of rain fell in 24 hours in Steubenville, where schools were closed Friday.

The National Weather Service reported that floodwaters in Steubenville were as high as 10 feet.

“I lived down here 15 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Jessica Keifer of Steubenville said.

United Airlines said it canceled 50% of its Friday afternoon flights out of O’Hare. Some southbound flights out of the airport had to be diverted as far east as Iowa City before they could start turning south in order to get around the storms, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

A sailboat caught in the storm Thursday on Lake Erie crashed into a breakwater near Cleveland harbor and broke into pieces. Three women aboard were killed, and three men were rescued.

The boaters were whipped so hard by 36-m.p.h. winds and six-foot waves that their clothes had been torn off, Coast Guard Lt. Vincent Weber said.

In eastern Ohio, a 50-year-old woman was struck by lightning and killed as she ran for shelter through a farm field near Wilmot. Another woman died in a two-car accident in Warren blamed on a power outage caused by the storm.

The Allegheny Creek in West Virginia ran out of its banks, flooding about a dozen businesses with up to six feet of water and submerging cars in Follansbee. About 40 homes were evacuated in the town of about 4,000.

“I can’t believe it actually floated cars,” Fire Chief Larry Rea said.

In western Pennsylvania, Plum Creek overflowed about 20 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, flooding the business district in Houston with up to 10 feet of water. One hundred residents of Avella were evacuated, Washington County Emergency Services Director Bracken Burns said.

Tornadoes knocked down trees in Pennsylvania’s Butler County and Westmoreland County, the weather service said. Other unconfirmed tornado sightings were reported in Michigan and Ohio.