Midwest storms flood Wisconsin streets, damage Ann Arbor ice arenas

Floodwaters from record rainfall stranded drivers on Milwaukee highways Wednesday as Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency, while communities in Michigan’s Ann Arbor area worked to recover from powerful overnight storms that tore part of the roof from a university ice arena and forced school closures across the city. At least three tornadoes were confirmed in Wisconsin, and National Weather Service crews were still surveying parts of Michigan to determine whether additional tornadoes had touched down.

The storms are part of what meteorologists described as a highly dynamic weather pattern combining very moist air with a strong jet stream across the central United States and Great Lakes — conditions that had generated more than 400 reports of hail, damaging winds or tornadoes by Wednesday afternoon.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Floodwaters stranded drivers on Milwaukee-area highways Wednesday as Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency, while communities in Michigan’s Ann Arbor area assessed damage from overnight storms that tore part of the roof from a university ice arena, forced school closures and uprooted trees across the city.

At least three tornadoes were confirmed in Wisconsin, and more severe weather was expected. The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office urged residents not to drive in southeast Wisconsin after cars became trapped in high water; video shared by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel showed a woman and child being rescued from a vehicle.

In Michigan, National Weather Service crews were surveying damage in Ann Arbor and surrounding areas to determine whether one or more tornadoes had touched down. Meteorologist Sara Schultz said wind gusts as strong as 70 mph were recorded at the University of Michigan football stadium and at Willow Run Airport.

Ann Arbor storm damage

Part of the roof was torn from the University of Michigan’s Yost Ice Arena. Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor said structural engineers were also assessing damage to a wall at the city’s Veterans Memorial Park Ice Arena.

Some Ann Arbor public school buildings suffered structural damage, and the district closed because a fiber outage knocked out fire, phone, camera and building-access systems.

Seungjun Lee, a 20-year-old University of Michigan junior, said a storm siren and then an alert blasted from his phone woke him and his roommates between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., urging them to take shelter. A large tree had been uprooted just outside his home, narrowly missing his upstairs bedroom.

“If the tree fell down a couple more feet, I would not be standing here,” Lee said.

As much as 2.5 inches of rain fell across parts of southeastern Michigan by Wednesday morning. Flood watches were issued for southeastern Michigan, northern Indiana, the Chicago area and Wisconsin.

Fish kill in northern Michigan

A power outage during the storm killed 1,750 steelhead trout at a northern Michigan state facility where eggs and milt are collected to produce fish for stocking programs.

Scott Heintzelman of the state’s fisheries division said the loss of electricity had stopped the flow of oxygenated water, dooming the fish. “It was a devastating event,” Heintzelman said, describing “big, beautiful fish.”

Wisconsin river levels

Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources said it was watching levees around Portage, a city of about 10,000 people, as the Wisconsin River rose. As of Wednesday morning, the river at Portage had swelled to nearly 19 feet — about 2 feet over flood stage — and could rise to approximately 20 feet, officials said.

Where the storm system is headed

Bill Bunting, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, described a “very dynamic weather pattern” combining very moist air with a strong jet stream across the central United States and Great Lakes region.

By Wednesday afternoon, the weather service had received more than 400 reports of hail, winds above 60 mph or tornadoes. The system was stretching from central Texas northward into Iowa and southern Wisconsin, then eastward across Michigan, Illinois, northern Indiana and Ohio, moving toward upper Pennsylvania and the Buffalo, New York, area, Bunting said.

Forecasters said temperatures were expected to reach record highs in New York, Philadelphia and Washington through the weekend as the storm system pushed eastward.