Storms Cause Renewed Flooding on East Coast; More Severe Weather Headed for the Ohio Valley

Eric Chaney
Published: August 19,2015

A line of slow-moving thunderstorms worked its way through New Jersey Wednesday evening, tracking northward from Philadelphia into portions of New York state and creating moderate flooding around the region.  Radar indicated upwards of 8 inches of rain fell in parts of Union County, New Jersey, and a Weather Underground personal weather station in New Providence recorded just over 5 inches of rain between 2 and 5 p.m.Reports on social media show flooding in Plainfield, Berkeley Heights, Scotch Plains and Mountain Heights.

Parts of Highway 78 in New Jersey saw heavy flooding Wednesday.
(Instagram/kalia_murray)

Additional thunderstorms can be expected into early tonight, says weather.com meteorologist Quincy Vagell, with localized flash flooding possible from the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania to northwestern New Jersey and the Catskills in New York.

Midwest

It was a scary night for parts of the Midwest as severe storms brought damaging winds, hail and tornadoes.
The National Weather Service has confirmed two F1 tornadoes touched down in Wisconsin, one of which caused significant roof damage to several industrial buildings about 2 miles northeast of Lake Geneva. The storms moved through the area at around 9 p.m. local time Tuesday night, and damage to the buildings, located in a small industrial park in the Town of Lyons, was found by authorities after that according to Fox6Now.com.
Earlier in the evening a smaller tornado touched down briefly in a farm field in Cedar County, Iowa but no damage has been reported.
According to local storm reports, a different tornado was briefly in progress in Livingston County, Illinois, Tuesday night, near the towns of Chenoa and Pontiac. There were no reports of major damage in the wake of the storm.
"A rather potent low-pressure system for mid-August standards was responsible for Tuesday's severe weather in the Midwest," said weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce. "More severe weather is possible ahead of this storm system on Wednesday from the Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley, lower-Mississippi Valley and Texas. Meanwhile, temperatures 10 to 30 degrees below average will plunge through parts of the Plains and Upper Midwest behind the front."
(MORE: Track Severe Storms As They Move East)
Southwest of Chicago, residents reported seeing another possible funnel cloud near Crest Hill.
After the storms rolled through, more than 10,000 Chicago-area customers were left without power, according to NBC Chicago.
The NWS also relayed 23 reports of hail and nearly 100 wind damage reports on Wednesday, with a majority of those reports coming from the Plains and Midwest. But the Southeast also experienced problems from severe storms that brought strong winds and dumped inches of rain in a short time period.

Charleston, South Carolina

The NWS in Charleston has issued a flash flood warning for the second day in a row as storms hit the area again. Though not nearly as large as the storms that swept through Tuesday, the recent rains added enough water for the flash flood warning to go back into effect until 6:45 p.m. The Charleston Police briefly closed South Market Street, but it was open as of 4 p.m.
MORE: Flooding in Charleston