http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/26/severe.weather.ap/index.html

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Beleaguered residents of the flood-ravaged Midwest
found fresh damage Sunday from a batch of tornado-bearing thunderstorms
that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of customers.

The floor is ripped up Saturday in a beauty salon damaged by flooding in
downtown Ottawa, Ohio.

Tornado warnings were issued Saturday afternoon for parts of central and
southeast Ohio. Downed trees and power lines were reported in the southern
part of the state, said National Weather Service meteorologist Andy
Hatzos.
Flooding this week spread across an 80-mile swath through the northwest
and north central parts of the state. Gov. Ted Strickland was to tour more
of the damaged areas Sunday.

"What I've tried to do and what we've all tried to do is let these folks
know ... that we are working to get assistance to them as rapidly as
possible," Strickland said Saturday.

Powerful storms rolling through the Upper Midwest during most of the past
week caused disastrous floods from southeastern Minnesota to Ohio that
were blamed for at least 18 deaths. Watch Ohio residents deal with piles
of storm-damaged debris »

In southern Michigan, about 42,000 customers still lacked power Sunday,
utilities said. The National Weather Service confirmed tornadoes touched
down Friday in at least four areas, including a single 26-mile stretch.
One of the twisters cut a path a quarter-mile wide, snapping and uprooting
hundreds of trees, the weather service said.

Damage in Fenton was extensive, Mayor Sue Osborn said Saturday. "I have
seen houses that have trees go right through them," she said. Only
residents were being allowed into the city, she said.

Matt McClanahan's Cohoctah Township home was among at least 17 destroyed
by a twister.

"I've seen devastation and I've helped clean up, but I've never seen it be
me," he said. "I bought a bottle of Jim Beam and it's in the house. I
could really use a sip of that right now." See tips for surviving
floods »

Power had been restored to nearly 600,000 customers in northern Illinois
since Thursday's storm, but it could take days to restore power to tens of
thousands more, officials said.

The storms in Illinois were responsible for at least one death, a man
struck by a wind-toppled tree, officials said.


In Wisconsin, flooding destroyed 44 homes and damaged more than 1,400,
most of them in the southwestern part of the state. Officials in Vernon
County lifted evacuation orders Saturday evening, allowing the return of
140 residents displaced after torrential rainfall strained a number of
nearby dams.

About 1,500 homes were damaged around Minnesota. Federal Emergency
Management Agency Administrator R. David said FEMA recovery centers should
be running early this week in the three counties where President Bush
declared disasters.