A day after a tornado in Oklahoma left at least one person dead, storms raged across the Midwest

Severe storms pounded the Midwest on Tuesday, unleashing a curtain of heavy rain, gusty winds and tornadoes across the region, a day after a deadly tornado ripped through a small Oklahoma town, killing at least one person.

According to the National Weather Service, tornadoes were spotted in parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio after dark on Tuesday, while parts of Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri were also under a tornado watch.

Meteorologists warned that the storms could last late into the night and there could be more hurricanes and large hail.

In southwest Michigan, two tornadoes devastated the town of Portage, near Kalamazoo. The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office said there were “multiple downed trees and wires” in Portage and nearby Pavilion Township. A spokesman for the city of Portage said in a statement that there was significant damage to homes and businesses, but there were no immediate reports of serious injuries. A Kalamazoo County spokesman told CBS News that about 15 to 20 people were taken to area hospitals with minor injuries.

Photos posted on social media showed severe damage to a FedEx building in the Portage area.

In a statement to CBS News, a FedEx spokesperson confirmed that the facility was damaged but said there were “no serious injuries.”

“We continue to assess the damage and implement contingency plans to reduce any potential impact to service,” the statement said.

Portage Public Safety Director Nicholas Armold told CBS News that all FedEx employees were accounted for and none were trapped under the building’s rubble.

More than 20,000 people lost power in the Portage area, Consumers Energy said Tuesday evening. The company estimated most would be without power until 10 p.m. Wednesday.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, Branch and Cass counties Tuesday evening after the storm brought “large hail up to ten inches in diameter and at least two confirmed tornadoes.” she said in a statement.

In total, there were at least 22 tornadoes Monday evening and early Tuesday were displayed from the National Weather Service in seven states in the Great Plains and central United States. The severe weather threat was expected to continue Tuesday night into Wednesday, according to Alex Wilson, meteorologist for The Weather Channel. He reported that Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky were at risk.

The deadly tornado that touched down in Oklahoma on Monday evening ripped through the town of Barnsdall, population 1,000, about 40 minutes’ drive north of Tulsa. The National Weather Service there warned Monday evening that “a large and life-threatening tornado” was heading toward Barnsdall and the nearby town of Bartlesville.

It was the second tornado to hit Barnsdall in five weeks – an April 1 tornado with maximum winds of 90 to 100 miles per hour damaged homes and knocked down trees and utility poles.

Barnsdall Mayor Johnny Kelley said one person was dead while a man was missing following Monday’s accident. Authorities launched a second search for the missing man Tuesday morning.

“The hardest thing for me as mayor is that it’s a small community,” Kelley said. “I know 75 to 80 percent of the people in this city.”

At least 30 to 40 homes in the Barnsdall area were damaged Monday evening, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported.

Aerial photos showed several well-built houses reduced to piles of rubble, others with roofs torn off and damaged walls still standing. The powerful hurricane sent vehicles flying, downed power lines and stripped branches and bark from trees across the city. A 160-hectare wax factory in the community was also badly damaged.

First responders rescued about 25 people, including children, from heavily damaged homes where buildings had collapsed on top of or around them, Kelley said. About half a dozen people were injured, he said.

“We took a direct hit from a tornado,” said Kary Fox with Washington County Emergency Management. “Please stay off the streets. Stay away from these damaged areas. We are having a lot of difficulty getting there to examine people and determine whether they have suffered any injuries due to the traffic congestion.”

The Barnsdall nursing home said it evacuated residents because a gas leak could not be closed due to storm damage. It was later posted online that all residents were uninjured and were being taken to other facilities.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who toured the hurricane’s damage on Tuesday, said it was classified by weather forecasters as a violent tornado with winds of up to 200 miles per hour. Stitt said he and lawmakers agreed to allocate $45 million in this year’s budget to help storm-damaged communities.

“Oklahoma residents are resilient,” Stitt said, “and we will rebuild.”

At the Hampton Inn in Bartlesville, several shattered SUVs were driven into the south side of the building. Pieces of insulation, twisted metal and other debris lay strewn across the hotel’s lawn, and vehicles in the parking lot were badly damaged by broken windows.

Matthew Macedo, who was staying at the hotel, said he was ushered into the hotel’s laundry room to wait out the storm.

“The impact was incredibly sudden,” he said.

The storms swept across Oklahoma while areas like Sulfur and Holdenville were still recovering from a storm Tornado that killed four people and left thousands without power late last month. Both the Plains and the Midwest were hit by tornadoes this spring.

A high-risk weather advisory was in effect Monday for Oklahoma and Kansas. The last time such a warning was issued was March 31, 2023, when a massive storm system devastated parts of the South and Midwest, including Arkansas, Illinois and rural Indiana.

Things are looking stormy in the US all week. The eastern United States and the South are expected to take the brunt of the bad weather the rest of the week, including Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati, cities home to more than 21 million people. It should be clear at the weekend.

Oklahoma’s State Emergency Operations Center, which is coordinating the storm response from a bunker near the state capital Oklahoma City, was still activated due to last weekend’s deadly storms.

Monte Tucker, a farmer and rancher in the western Oklahoma town of Sweetwater, had spent Monday storing some of his tractors and heavy equipment in barns to protect them from hail. He said he let his neighbors know they could come to his house if the weather became dangerous.

“We built a house 10 years ago and my stubborn wife advocated for us to build a safe space,” Tucker said. He said the entire ground floor space was constructed with reinforced concrete walls.

A high-risk weather advisory was in effect Monday for Oklahoma and Kansas. Bill Bunting, deputy director of the Storm Prediction Center, said such a warning from the center isn’t seen every day or every spring.

“This is the highest threat level we can assign,” he said.

It was last issued on March 31, 2023, when a massive storm system devastated parts of the South and Midwest, including Arkansas, Illinois and rural Indiana.

The increased risk is due to an unusual confluence: Winds gusting up to about 75 mph ripped through Colorado’s populated Front Range region, including the Denver area, on Monday.

The winds were generated by a low pressure system north of Colorado that also pulled in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, increasing the risk of severe weather in the Plains, according to the National Weather Service office in the Denver area.

There was no risk of tornadoes or thunderstorms in Colorado.

In the meantime, Flooding in the Houston area began receding Monday after days of heavy rains in southeast Texas flooded neighborhoods and led to hundreds of flood rescues.