400,000 without power as Midwest battered by severe weather
Members of the Chicago White Sox grounds crew struggle to deploy the rain tarp in the bottom of the seventh inning as hail and rain delay a game against the Los Angeles Angels at Rate Field on March 30, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Matt Dirksen/Getty Images)
(CHICAGO) — More than 400,000 customers across the Midwest were without power in the early hours of Monday after severe weather battered the region.
As of 5:30 a.m. ET, more than 292,000 customers were without power in Michigan, according to poweroutage.us — a website that tracks power outages throughout the country.
Another 56,000 were disconnected in Wisconsin, 53,000 in Indiana, 15,000 in Kentucky and 13,000 in Ohio, the website said.
ABC News Chicago affiliate WLS reported that one person was killed in Valparaiso, Indiana, when “severe crosswinds” blew a tractor and a trailer onto their sides, according to a statement by Sgt. Benjamin McFalls of the Porter County Sheriff’s Office.
Severe weather was forecast for much of the Midwest and South as the storm traveled eastward through the weekend.
More than 75 million Americans were in the threat zone of the storm as of late Sunday. The system was expected to bring a range of hazardous weather impacts, including severe thunderstorms and a wintry blast on the northern side.
Sunday’s forecast said the severe weather was due to move to the East Coast and I-95 corridor from Upstate New York all the way south to Tallahassee and New Orleans on Monday.
Damaging winds will be the biggest threat for northern cities but tornadoes cannot be ruled out across southern areas.
ABC News Darren Reynolds and Jessica Gorman contributed to this report.
(TAMPA, Fla.) — One pedestrian was killed and several pedestrians and officers were hurt by a driver who allegedly drove into people in multiple intentional hit-and-runs in Tampa, Florida, Sunday night, police said.
“Tonight was a tragic night involving an extremely dangerous suspect” who was fatally shot by police, ending the “violent rampage,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said at a news conference.
The incidents began just before 8:30 p.m. when officers responded to a report of a driver blocking someone’s car at a Dollar General, Bercaw said.
The two drivers argued and eventually the victim left, the chief said. Then, the victim noticed the suspect was following him to his house, and the two drivers threw items at each other, Bercaw said.
The suspect then “reversed out, hitting the victim with the car twice,” the chief said. “While this was happening, a friend of the victim was firing at the suspect in an attempt to stop this violent act.”
That first victim was listed in stable condition, the chief said.
At 8:33 p.m., the suspect drove his white Honda in circles and then struck and killed a man in an apparently intentional act, police said.
The suspect fled and then struck another pedestrian, who survived, police said.
At 8:39 p.m., the suspect was seen driving toward pedestrians on a sidewalk, police said. The driver struck another man who was hospitalized with serious head injuries but is expected to be OK, Bercaw said.
At 10:16 p.m., another call came in reporting that the driver intentionally veered into people, striking another person, Bercaw said.
Police chased the suspect and eventually stopped his car, Bercaw said.
“The suspect was getting out of the car, reaching for what [officers] believed was a weapon, and then shots were fired,” Bercaw said. “The suspect did not survive.”
Three officers were injured in that incident; none of their injuries are life-threatening, Bercaw said.
The 47-year-old suspect, whose name was not released, had an “extensive violent criminal history” and was released from prison about two years ago, the chief said.
“This was a violent night,” the chief said.
“Our thoughts are with the family of the man who was killed,” he added.
(OKLAHOMA CITY, OK) — A once-in-a generation extreme weather event is beginning Wednesday with a tornado outbreak and will continue into the weekend with four days of dangerous flooding pounding the same region.
First, wind gusts up to 50 mph are possible all day Wednesday for more than 65 million Americans across 13 states from Texas to Ohio.
A tornado watch is in place for Oklahoma, eastern Kansas and northwest Missouri on Wednesday morning. At least two tornadoes have already been reported in Missouri on Wednesday morning.
There’s a rare high risk (level 5 of 5) warning for destructive storms, which could bring strong, long-track tornadoes of EF3+ strength, very large hail up to the size of tennis balls and destructive winds greater than 70 mph.
Wednesday’s high risk area spans Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee, to Paducah, Kentucky. The high risk lasts from Wednesday afternoon until midnight.
A level 5 of 5 high risk is issued less than 1% of days; people within the area are three times more likely to be hit by a tornado than in a 1 of 5 risk area.
A level 4 of 5 warning is in effect from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Louisville, Kentucky.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has declared a state of emergency.
“We’re really concerned about people’s safety, especially in the overnight, because when storms or tornadoes hit while people are asleep, that’s sadly when we’ve lost the most people,” he said in a statement. “So, everybody out there, be really careful.”
But the biggest threat is from the rain.
Historically high rainfall will create a particularly dangerous situation, or PDS, for flooding Wednesday through Sunday.
Nearly 4 million Americans are under the PDS flood watch in Arkansas, northern Mississippi and western Tennessee through Sunday morning. Cities in the PDS flood watch include Memphis, Little Rock, Jonesboro and Union City.
On Wednesday, a moderate risk for excessive rainfall (level 3 of 4) is in place from Little Rock to Memphis to Nashville to Louisville.
Overall, more than 32 million Americans are under a general flood watch until Sunday morning. Major cities in this general flood watch include Louisville, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit.
On Thursday, the flood threat grows even more extreme over the same area. A rare high risk (level 4 of 4) from excessive rainfall will be in place from Jonesboro to the Memphis suburbs to Paducah.
On Friday, a moderate risk (level 3 of 4) for excessive rainfall is in place from just north of Dallas to Jonesboro to St. Louis.
On Saturday, the final day of this multiday life-threatening event will bring even more heavy rain from Jonesboro to Memphis to Louisville to Cincinnati.
The four-day event will leave 10 to 15 inches of rain or more over the bull’s-eye area from Jonesboro to Paducah. Seven to 10 inches of rain is possible from Little Rock to Memphis to Louisville to Cincinnati.
The system will finally be on the move Sunday afternoon, bringing rain to the Southeast on Sunday evening, Monday and Tuesday.
(GLASGOW, Ky.) — Eli Heacock was like many 16-year-olds.
The Glasgow, Kentucky, teenager enjoyed playing tennis, telling “dad jokes” and spending time with his father, who his mom said was “his best friend.”
“He was our tornado. He kept us on our toes all the time,” said his mother, Shannon Heacock.
But everything changed in an instant after Eli Heacock died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Feb. 28, his mom told ABC News.
Since his death, his mom said local and federal investigators have said they believe Eli Heacock may have been targeted in an alleged sextortion scheme.
“Eli was on a good track. We had no reason to believe there was an issue at all. We knew nothing about sextortion or how it works,” Eli Heacock’s father, John Burnett, told ABC News.
Sextortion is a term “used to describe a crime in which an offender coerces a minor to create and send sexually explicit images or video,” according to the FBI. Once the offender receives the explicit content from the child, they then threaten to release the compromising content “unless the victim produces additional explicit material,” the FBI said on its website.
One type of sextortion is “financially motivated sextortion,” which follows a similar pattern, but is motivated by the goal of financial gain, not sexual gratification, the FBI said. After receiving explicit material, the offender will threaten to release the content unless a payment is made, the FBI said.
Financial sextortion has resulted “in an alarming number of deaths by suicide,” the FBI said on its website.
But, the explicit pictures do not need to be taken by the child to qualify as sextortion, Burnett said. In his son’s case, he said the offender made AI-generated images of Eli Heacock, sent them to the teenager and demanded $3,000 or else the pictures would be released or his family would be harmed.
“Their intention was to convince Eli their sincerity that they could, in fact, harm him or someone he loved with pictures that they generated,” Burnett told ABC News.
His mother said she regularly checked her son’s phone, but the interaction occurred during the night and the situation must have “put him in panic mode.”
In the text messages she saw, her son sent a portion of money to the offender, to which the anonymous user replied, “This is not enough.”
Eli Heacock’s twin sister discovered her brother’s body, ran to her parents and said “Eli was hurt,” Shannon Heacock said.
The 16-year-old was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to his injuries on Feb. 28, his mother said.
“How can your lives change that fast over merely $3,000 someone wanted off the internet from a kid? I play a lot of ‘What if I did this? What if I did that?’ We don’t need anybody to add to our guilt because we carry it very heavily right now,” Shannon Heacock told ABC News.
Upon arriving at the hospital, a local FBI detective reviewed Eli Heacock’s phone, recognized it as a potential sextortion case and put the teenager’s phone on airplane mode, his mother said.
The investigation into Eli Heacock’s death is still in its beginning stages, his father said, with both local detectives and federal investigators reviewing the contents of the 16-year-old’s phone.
The family has also been in contact with Rep. Steve Riley, a lawmaker in the Kentucky House of Representatives, who has championed a bill in the Kentucky legislature making sextortion a felony and establishing penalties for those convicted of the crime. The bill is now on its way to Gov. Andy Beshear to be signed into law, Shannon Heacock said.
The Heacocks are not the only family mourning the loss of a loved one after a sextortion scheme. In 2023 alone, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received 26,718 reports of financial sextortion — up from 10,731 reports in 2022.
Shannon Heacock urges parents to check their children’s phones at all times because, in her experience, “even the happiest child is hiding something.”
“It’s no longer to be scared of the white van that drives around, you have to be scared of the internet,” Shannon Heacock said.
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org.
