At least three tornadoes battered communities outside Chicago on Thursday, leveling homes and ripping down trees and power poles, while storms grounded flights for some and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands in the Midwest and Northeast.

More than 40 million people from Kansas City to Chicago are in the path of severe weather on Wednesday.

Damaging storms are sweeping through the Midwest, disrupting flights at Chicago airports and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers