CNN, LISA BLANCHETTE, CHRISTIAN TELLO, WBBM, WLS, LETICIA MARIE CRANFORD, SELENA JANE CASTILLO
By CNN meteorologists Mary Gilbert, Chris Dolce, Briana Waxman and CNN’s Hanna Park, CNN
(CNN) — Dangerous storms with tornadoes and giant hail tore across the central US overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. As storms push east early Wednesday, the main concerns shift to flash flooding and damaging winds.
Storms are ongoing from Texas to the Great Lakes, leaving over 70,000 customers without power, about a third of them in Texas.
Injuries and widespread damage were reported in parts of Illinois and Indiana, according to officials.
A tornado tracked through the Kankakee, Illinois, area Tuesday evening.
Drone video from Kankakee County showed buildings torn apart and debris scattered across neighborhoods after a tornado moved through Tuesday evening. Emergency crews navigated the wreckage overnight with flashlights, stepping over splintered lumber and fallen trees as they searched damaged homes.
Kankakee Mayor Christopher W. Curtis told CNN there are no deaths or missing people in the county, though seven individuals sustained minor injuries. Several homes and commercial buildings were damaged, and multiple roads remain closed due to downed trees and power lines.
Brandy Peppin said she had only minutes of warning before the storm reached her house. Her brother called to say he could see the tornado heading straight toward her home.
“Thank God,” Peppin told CNN. “And I ran, grabbed my dog who was already in the closet where we go down into the crawl space and. Literally pulled the door open. He fell into the crawl space, and I went down there and we rode the tornado out. It was so loud.”
“There would be little ‘bang bangs’ and then big ones,” she said. “You could just tell that there was debris hitting the house and hear things hitting the house — it was so loud.”
The Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office activated its Emergency Operations Center and filed an emergency declaration with Illinois.
“I want to remind area residents to check on their neighbors and loved ones but to avoid unnecessary travel, if at all possible,” Sheriff Mike Downey said.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he had been briefed on the storm damage and was monitoring the situation.
“Keeping in our thoughts all Illinoisans impacted by the severe weather – we’ll be here to help them recover,” he said.
Farther east, in Lake Village, a small community in northwestern Indiana, homes were destroyed in the tornado, Indiana State Police Public Information Officer Glen Fifield told CNN. There were injuries, though the number of people hurt and the severity of those injuries were not immediately available, he added.
Fifield said the extent of the damage is being assessed, including the number of homes affected.
“Lake Villages has experienced a tornado. There’s several houses that have been hit. A lot of damage. Please do not come here. Do not try