A child has died and two adults are missing after being swept into a drainage ditch in Milwaukee after heavy thunderstorms brought heavy rains and destructive winds across much of the Midwest and parts of the South, authorities said.
Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipsky said Tuesday afternoon that the child, identified only as a 10-year-old boy, had been found in a nearby river. The child would turn 11 on July 4. His family has been notified and the search for the remaining missing continues.
“Everyone here clearly understands that this is a terrible day,” Lipxy said. “But it will never be as horrible as it is for the family you see there. Please respect their grief and their privacy.”
Witnesses told police that around 6:30 p.m. on Monday, the boy fell into a ditch that carries water through a tunnel to the Kininikik River. According to police, two men, aged 34 and 37, entered the water in an attempt to save the boy, but all three were swept away.
“In this tunnel, we have no idea what was going on in this tunnel,” said Assistant Fire Chief Dewey Smooths.
Divers are searching for an 11-year-old child and two Milwaukee men who were swept into a drainage tunnel near the 27th and Loomis after heavy rains on Monday. The search has been suspended until daylight. MORE HERE: pic.twitter.com/x2X8bfnINB
– CBS 58 News (@ CBS58) June 14, 2022
The crews did not enter the tunnel due to dangerous conditions and instead sent a drone inside in an attempt to find them, officials said. The names of the missing were not released immediately. Police said all three knew each other, but gave no further details.
Family members told the WDJT that a boy was playing ball with his father when the son somehow fell into the water and the father came in after him. The family told the station that another elderly family member had also jumped.
The water was deep and fast after severe storms on Monday, which also caused damage and power outages in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. And storms continued to strike as they entered West Virginia early Tuesday, where many roads were closed by downed trees and power lines.
The storms came as high temperatures and humidity settled in states stretching across parts of the Persian Gulf coast to the Great Lakes and east to the Carolinas. More than 100 million people faced a combination of heat recommendations, overheat warnings and overheat warnings by Wednesday after record weekend temperatures in parts of the West and Southwest.
In Odessa, Texas, where temperatures reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, a water supply disruption affected 165,000 residents and sparked a declaration of disaster in the city, Gov. Greg Abbott said. Authorities said the restoration of the service could take until Wednesday.
In Illinois, a thunderstorm with winds of more than 80 miles per hour knocked down trees and damaged power lines on Monday night, leaving a trail of damage in the Chicago area and northwest Indiana, the National Weather Service said. Tens of thousands were left without electricity.
Numerous reports of wind damage from the storm have been reported, with Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport registering a gust of wind at 84 miles per hour, the meteorological service said. Crews planned to assess the damage from Tuesday’s storm to determine if a tornado had landed.
In Belwood, in the western suburbs of Chicago, village officials said winds blew off the roof of an apartment building, injuring a young woman who was hospitalized after being hit by falling debris but is expected to recover.
“We just heard people shouting that the roof has been taken down, get out, get out,” Larhonda Neal told WLS-TV.
In northwestern Indiana, the Meteorological Service said it was damaged by a storm in Ogden Dunes and said a 1.5-inch hailstorm hit the town of Lake New Chicago County on Monday night.
In Northeast Indiana, the Meteorological Service said a 98-mph wind gust was recorded at Fort Wayne International Airport, the strongest wind the airport has ever recorded, overshadowing a previous record of a 91-mph gust recorded on June 30, 2012. Extensive damage from the storm and downed trees were reported in Fort Wayne, where winds tore siding and insulation from the hangar of SkyWest, an aircraft maintenance company southwest of the terminal and runways at Fort Wayne Airport, revealing planes inside, WANE-TV reported.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the airport said: “Although there is a lot of damage, all staff are safe and no injuries have been reported.”
DIFFICULT WEATHER
The FWA was hit hard by last night’s storms, with a number of airport and airport facilities affected by varying degrees of damage. Although there is plenty of damage, all staff are safe and no casualties have been reported. (Continued …)
– Fort Wayne Airport (@flyfwa) June 14, 2022
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