Fierce Derecho Tracks Across 700 Miles Of The Midwest

A derecho — a dangerous, ferocious wall of wind that’s like an inland hurricane — lashed 700 miles across the Midwest on Monday, flipping cars, downing trees, causing widespread property damage and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands.

The derecho lasted several hours, traveling through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. In Fort Wayne, Indiana, a woman died at a hospital after firefighters pulled her from debris inside her mobile home after high winds rolled it onto its side Monday night.

So far, dozens of injuries but no other fatalities have been reported.

As of Tuesday morning, over 1 million customers were without power, according to Poweroutage.us. Most of the outages were in Illinois and Iowa.

Derechoes are often referred to as inland hurricanes due to their hurricane-like conditions, in terms of ferocious wind and torrential rain.