Tornadoes kill 2 in northwestern Indiana and raze buildings in Kankakee, Illinois

Debris covers vehicles after a severe storm passed the area in in Kankakee County, Illinois, late Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (WLS-TV via AP)

Major storms whipped up tornadoes that killed at least two people in northwest Indiana and leveled buildings in Kankakee, Illinois, authorities said Wednesday, as another round of rain, hail and strong winds made its way through the region.

Several intense supercell thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana on Tuesday, including one responsible for at least four tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service office in Chicago.

The storms shattered windows, tore off roofs and smashed vehicles in Kankakee. Wood planks and other debris littered yards, streets and parking lots. A landscape and garden center was seriously damaged, some parts completely destroyed.

Storms also dropped 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimetres) of rain and left piles of hail in the Grand Rapids area in western Michigan, said Alex Manion, a weather service meteorologist in Detroit. Streets flooded, leaving a cars stranded with water up past their doors in some places.

The weather service said crews are determining the strength and number of tornadoes, and that parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio remain under a tornado watch Wednesday.

Suspected tornadoes last week killed four people in southwestern Michigan and two in eastern Oklahoma.

A tornado leaves a small Indiana community in tatters

The storm spawned a tornado that killed an elderly couple in their home in Lake Village, in northwestern Indiana, Newton County Coroner Scott McCord said. Their names have not been released.

Crews rescued some who were trapped in their damaged homes, at least 70 utility poles were knocked down and many roads are unpassable, Newton County officials said Wednesday morning.

“Please do not come here. Do not try to help right now,” Sheriff Shannon Cothran said in a video update Tuesday night in front of a destroyed Lake Village home.

Laurie Postma, a spokesperson for the Lake Township Volunteer Fire Department, said the storm injured less than 10 people in Lake Village. Cothran said Wednesday that no other significant injuries have been reported but that search and rescue operations continue.

Lake Village is about 60 miles (95 kilometres) southeast of Chicago and 25 miles (40 kilometres) west of Kankakee County, Illinois, where at least one tornado struck Tuesday night.

Resident says not all warning sirens sounded

David Ferris, of Lake Village, said he, his wife, and their dogs “rode it out in our downstairs bathtub.” They were unscathed, except for losing power. Ferris, who is a paramedic, helped to rescue and treat injured people.

“We had another house where a guy crawled out,” Ferris said. “He was having some trouble breathing because he was covered in house insulation.”

Ferris said a Family Dollar store and a gas station were destroyed, and multiple large trees were uprooted.

Jennifer Telford, 49, said she hid in her basement in Lake Village, from where she followed news reports of the storm. She didn’t hear the tornado that struck to the south, but said she heard the hail as it pelted her roof.

“The siren in town didn’t go off,” she said. “The sirens outside town did.”

She said power had been restored at the truck stop where she works Wednesday morning but that elsewhere, “everything is closed due to the downed trees and power lines.”

About 4,300 customers in Lake Village and surrounding communities were without power late Wednesday morning, down from more than 11,000 customers at the peak of the storm, the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. said on its website.

Giant hailstones pelted an Illinois community

In Kankakee, the storms produced exceptionally large hail, ranging from 3 to 5 inches (7.6 to 12.7 centimetres) in diameter. One 6-inch (15.2-centimetre) diameter hailstone may have set a new state record, the weather service said.

A tornado touched down near the Kankakee fairgrounds before travelling northeast into the small suburb of Aroma Park, where it caused extensive damage, the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office said.

Nine people in Kankakee County suffered minor injuries, officials there said at a news conference Wednesday. Kevin Birk, a meteorologist in the NWS Chicago office, confirmed at least one tornado touched down in the area Tuesday evening.

Newlywed Cassidy Sinwelski, 23, said she and her husband were aware of the tornado watch in their Kankakee neighbourhood and were expecting a run-of-the-mill storm until her husband spotted dark clouds barrelling toward them.

“We went into the bathroom, got a piece of plywood and within minutes, I closed my eyes, the lights flickered, and we just -- there was nothing,” Sinwelski said.

Then she heard loud rumbles and the sound of shattering glass.

“I just kept crying out for God, because I didn’t know what else to do,” she said.

The storm shattered a longstanding garden center’s spring plans

Tholens’ Garden Center on the south side of Kankakee was hit hard by the tornado, owner Nancy Tholen said Wednesday.

“We have multiple buildings, and lots of them are destroyed,” Tholen said. “This is our 50th year in business, and this was not how we planned to kick off our spring.”

Staff had just left for the day when the tornado hit Tuesday afternoon, she said. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

“You know, we make our living in the next 12 weeks,” Tholen said. “We’ll figure something out to open, but it’s just ... it’s crazy. But again, everybody’s safe, so we’re thankful for that.”

In Aroma Park, just southeast of Kankakee, restaurateur and village trustee Kathleen Slavin watched the destruction of the tornado and “baseball-sized hail” from the village hall, where she had been attending a village board meeting.

“It took down trees that are probably over a hundred years old, huge trees came down. It took out main power lines,” Slavin said.

Her friend, 69-year-old Ruth Denoyer, swept up glass after the tornado blew out her windows and pummeled her home.

“It took our whole garage down, our pool, we have broken windows in the house, glass everywhere.” Denoyer said. “But we still have a roof, unlike some people out here.”

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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press journalists Hallie Golden in Seattle; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois; and AP video journalist Laura Bargfeld in Lake Village, Indiana, contributed.

By Nam Y. Huh And Kathy Mccormack