Two killed, nearly 1.5 million lose power in windstorms
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Laura Slaght looks Thursday at a neighbor's home after high winds blew down a tree onto it.
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Hailstorms in California, tornadoes in Ohio, damaging winds in the East, flooding in West Virginia -- CNN's Miguel Marquez reports (November 13)
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(AP) -- Windstorms gusting to more than 70 mph swept across the Midwest and the East, knocking out power to more than 1.4 million customers and bringing rain and flooding that flushed out buildings "like a toilet."
A motorist who drove past a roadblock was swept away by a creek in West Virginia, and two people were killed in separate weather-related accidents in New York, including one in which a tree fell on a vehicle.
Two people in Virginia were seriously injured by wind-blown debris Thursday: a teenager who was waiting for a school bus when a tree fell on her, and a man hit by a falling branch at a golf course.
Michigan and Ohio were the hardest hit by power outages, with about 375,000 customers affected in each state. The majority had electricity restored by late Thursday.
Heavy wind also knocked out power to thousands in Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
On the West Coast, meanwhile, Los Angeles was recovering from a freak storm that dumped 5 inches of rain and hail in some areas in less than two hours. (Full story)
Gusts up to 74 mph knocked down trees and power lines in Michigan. Scores of school districts canceled classes, and a live power line fell across Interstate 94 near the Detroit airport, creating a monster traffic jam.
Winds halted boat traffic on the Great Lakes, where waves of up to 16 feet were recorded on lakes Erie and Ontario.
New York-area airports had flight delays of up to three hours Thursday.
Seven people were injured Wednesday night in Wooster, Ohio, when a tornado damaged a Rubbermaid plant. The twister, with winds of 110 to 130 mph, was on the ground for about 12 miles, said meteorologist Mark Adams of the National Weather Service.
"We've had substantial damage," Rubbermaid spokeswoman Keri Butler said Thursday. The company was still running its distribution site, but manufacturing was shut down.
Another tornado that hit Lexington Township near Alliance, about 50 miles southeast of Cleveland, had winds of 75 to 100 mph and damaged a few homes and a school, Adams said.
In West Virginia, heavy rain caused flooding Wednesday. A car that had driven around a fire truck and into a creek was found early Thursday, jammed under a bridge in Kanawha County's Loudendale area. The driver had been swept away.
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Schools superintendent Bill Grizzell walks Thursday down the muck-covered halls of an elementary school in Griffithsville, West Virginia.
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Loudendale, in a narrow valley packed with houses, got more than 4 inches of rain Wednesday.
Jeff Blount surveyed the damage to his in-laws' store, where about 4 feet of water turned over display cases. An ice machine and 3,000-gallon kerosene tank were washed away.
"Mother Nature flushed it out like a toilet," Blount said of the building.
More than 100 students were stuck in shelters past midnight in adjacent Lincoln County. In South Charleston, Linda McCune was rescued from rising water at her home on her 60th birthday.
"I didn't think I was going to make it this time," McCune said. "I'd seen it coming up very, very fast."
In Sterling, Virginia, the winds hurled a tree onto a 14-year-old, injuring her as she waited for her bus. And in Victor, New York, outside of Rochester, a 37-year-old woman died after winds blew a large tree onto her car.
Wind-whipped flames gutted most of a 42-unit apartment complex Thursday in Newark, New Jersey, leaving up to 80 people homeless.
In western North Carolina, a visitors center on the Blue Ridge Parkway had its roof ripped off Thursday morning. Parkway officials closed a 12-mile stretch of the road.
Horse racing was canceled Thursday at Maryland's Laurel Park, where winds were consistently blowing at 30 mph, with 50 mph gusts.
The winds were strongest on the Appalachian Mountain ridges of Garrett County and Allegany County, which also had some snow.
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