One dead in storms that wreak havoc and leave thousands without power in upstate New York

Severe storms and at least four tornadoes devastated New York State overnight, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. At least one person was killed and hundreds of thousands of power connections were lost due to downed power lines.

NBC affiliate WPTZ in Plattsburgh, New York, confirmed using radar imagery that a tornado struck in Rome, 17 miles northwest of Utica, as well as two in Hamilton County and one in Warren County further east.

Authorities confirmed that one person died in the village of Canastota in Madison County, west of Rome.

More than 110,000 people were without power across New York on Wednesday morning, 103,000 in Illinois and over 100,000.

Governor Kathy Hochul declared a statewide state of emergency on Tuesday. She said Central New York, the Mohawk Valley and the Southern Tier were the hardest hit. She spoke with both Rome Mayor Jeffrey Lanigan and Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr.

Lanigan said at a press conference: “It looks like a war zone.”

More storms and heavy rain are forecast for Wednesday. A local state of emergency is in effect in Canastota and Lenox until 8 a.m. Wednesday morning. A mandatory evacuation order is in effect for one street in Canastota.

Images from Rome show entire streets blocked by fallen trees, sidewalks destroyed by uprooted trees, and downed streetlights and power lines. A team from the National Weather Service in Binghamton will inspect the area on Wednesday.

In Rome, winds of nearly 80 miles per hour were strong enough to overturn vehicles, shatter windshields, destroy the roof and spire of a church, and knock a massive B-52 bomber several feet from its platform outside the entrance to the decommissioned Griffiss Air Force Base.

The extreme weather in the Northeast comes 24 hours after the Midwest was also hit by storms and several tornadoes. The National Weather Service issued 16 tornado warnings, the most in a single day since 2004.

On Tuesday, a woman was confirmed to have died as a result of storms in Indiana. Laura Nagel, 44, died in Cedar Lake, Indiana, after a tree fell on a home during the storm, the Lake County coroner’s office said.

The community of 3,000 in Nashville, Illinois, was inundated by water on Tuesday when a dam burst, forcing the evacuation of 300 homes. The National Weather Service said the area was hit by 5 to 7 inches (12 to 18 centimeters) of rain in eight hours.

The storm also hit Canada’s largest city, Toronto, and music star Drake posted a video on Instagram showing water pouring through his home there. “That’s hopefully an espresso martini,” he said of the murky brown water.