Severe storms that rolled across multiple states left tens of thousands of energy customers without power Tuesday morning, with dangerous levels of heat on the way.
Residents in parts of Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois were among those left in the dark.
Across Ohio, more than 145,000 customers were without power after straight line winds and lightning pushed through the state and took down trees and power lines, AEP Ohio tweeted just before 8 a.m. The company said at the time that power had been restored to about 10,000 customers.
Crews in northeastern Indiana and southwestern Michigan were working to restore power to nearly 40,000 customers after a storm packing 98 mph winds hit the area, Indiana Michigan Power tweeted around 7 a.m.
RENEWABLE ENERGY DEPENDENCE COULD LEAD TO ROLLING BLACKOUTS IN MICHIGAN THIS SUMMER
Damaging winds, lightning and heavy rain pummeled southeast Wisconsin, leaving over 23,000 customers in dark as of 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to the We Energies Outage Map.
In the Chicago area, tornado warnings had been in place as storms with 90 mph winds tore through the region Monday evening, knocking out power to more than 53,000 ComEd customers, according FOX32 Chicago. By Tuesday morning, the ComEd outage map showed 745 active outages remained.
Crews were scrambling to bring power back to customers as oppressive heat was forecast in many parts of the country.
An excessive heat warning was expected to take effect in Indiana with a record-high temperature of 95 degrees, with heat indices pushing into the low 100s, FOX59 Indianapolis reported.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Northeast Ohio temperatures were expected in the upper 80s on Tuesday, with heat index temperatures feeling as high as 107 degrees, FOX8 Cleveland reported. The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for multiple counties.
Meanwhile, Chicago was under an excessive heat warning as the area’s temperatures could hit the upper 90s and its heat index could reach as high as 110 degrees, according to FOX32 Chicago.