Severe storms unleash tornadoes across Midwest, threatening more destruction and outages

Severe weather hammered the Plains and Midwest for a second straight day, spawning multiple tornadoes and leaving forecasters warning of another round of giant hail, tornadoes and damaging wind gusts. The storm system stretched across a broad corridor from Texas to New York, putting more than 130 million people under threat as communities from Kansas to northern Illinois dealt with damage, outages and the prospect of more rough weather.

In Kansas, authorities reported several people with minor injuries after storms passed through Monday. Across the outbreak, at least 14 tornadoes were reported in the Midwest and Plains, with Minnesota, Wisconsin and Kansas among the states hit. In Wisconsin, strong winds ripped roofs off several buildings, including a nursing home roof collapse in Lodi, underscoring how quickly the storms turned from a weather alert into a public safety problem.

The damage was not limited to fallen trees and torn shingles. Power outages spread through parts of the region, and flash flooding added another layer of strain for towns already coping with cleanup. The National Weather Service said the threat remained widespread, and forecasters warned that the same storm pattern could deliver another blow to the same communities that were hit the day before.

The back-to-back storms also tested election operations in Iowa and South Dakota, where some voters cast ballots by flashlight after power failures. That disruption exposed how severe weather can ripple beyond emergency response and into basic civic functions, forcing local officials to keep polling places open while crews dealt with downed lines and darkened buildings.

With another round of severe weather expected, the immediate challenge was not just damage from the first wave but the stress of having to absorb a second one before recovery was complete. For towns in the storm path, the next threat was already moving in while cleanup and repairs were still underway.