EF-3 tornado rips through Indiana and Illinois, flattening homes

The tornado threat that often feels like a Plains problem hit the Chicago region instead, flattening homes in Porter County, Indiana, and exposing how quickly a violent storm line can overwhelm suburban neighborhoods that may not think of themselves as tornado country. National Weather Service survey crews found EF-3 damage in Kouts, where estimated winds ranged from 136 to 165 mph.

The storm system cut across northern and central Illinois and northwest Indiana with multiple tornadoes, and officials sent survey teams to Dwight, Streator and Bartlett in Illinois as well as damaged areas near Merrillville and Hebron in Indiana. One witness who came through the worst-hit area described the scene as a “war zone” after the storms tore down power lines and left homes flattened.

In Merrillville, local officials said extensive damage had been reported, road closures were in place, and a command center had been established as multiple agencies joined first responders in searching and assessing the destruction. Indiana outlets said at least nine tornadoes had been confirmed in the state and at least four people were injured, a reminder that the damage was not limited to one town or one county.

The power grid was hit hard across both states. The Associated Press reported that about 380,000 customers in Illinois and Indiana lost electricity, while air travel was also disrupted. NIPSCO said the June 10-11 storms caused significant and widespread damage across northern Indiana, and restoration could last into at least the following day. For many families, the immediate priorities were debris cleanup, checking on neighbors and staying away from downed lines and damaged roads.

The National Weather Service said damage surveys would continue over the coming days to determine how many tornadoes formed, where they traveled and how strong they became. The same storm system also produced straight-line wind damage in parts of the Chicago metro and farther south, while heavy rainfall from training thunderstorms caused flooding in far northern Illinois. As the outbreak moved east, more than 65 million people in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic faced severe-weather threats, extending the danger well beyond the Midwest and underscoring how one storm line can trigger cascading risks across states.

The region had already been on edge this spring, with NWS Chicago event summaries showing severe weather and flooding on multiple days in April and an EF-3 tornado in the Kankakee River Valley on March 10. By the time the June 11 outbreak ended, it had added another high-end storm to a season already marked by repeated warnings, damage and disruption.