Severe storms that swept through the Midwest knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of customers, damaged buildings and canceled flights, with new tornadoes touching down late Thursday in communities outside Chicago.

The National Weather Service said tornadoes had been confirmed in mostly rural areas southwest of Chicago, with some preliminary reports of buildings damaged in Streator, a manufacturing and farm city about 100 miles away.

That came a day after the weather service received more than a dozen reports of tornadoes across northern Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Illinois. Trees and utility wires were reported down across the region.

In Des Moines, Iowa, a 54-year-old man died at a homeless encampment in a park Wednesday after being hit by a tree that “broke apart and fell during strong storms,” police said in a statement.

Intense downpours, hail and thunderstorms continued Thursday, with the National Weather Service issuing tornado watches or warnings for parts of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin. Strong storms delayed or halted flights at airports in some cities, including Chicago, Philadelphia and Newark, New Jersey. Parts of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic also strained under high heat and humidity.

Shane Tipton, of Unionville, Missouri, drove home from his factory job Wednesday afternoon unaware that severe weather was on the way, said his daughter, Kylie Rouse. As he stepped out of his truck, he saw a twister bearing down — and hurried into his mobile home to evacuate his 87-year-old dad, Jimmie Tipton.

They made it back to the truck, drove just far enough away and watched as the tornado obliterated the home. Shattered cabinets, furniture and appliances littered the ground. Clothes hung in trees. They believe they lost one of their hunting dogs, who has been missing since it struck.

“Everything’s destroyed,” Rouse told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday. “It was scattered clear for miles. If my grandpa would have been in there, there’s no way that he would be alive.”

Potentially dangerous heat and high humidity arrived Thursday and was expected to continue Friday for a swath of the East Coast from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast, where daily high record temperatures could be broken in numerous places, the weather service said. Temperatures in the mid-90s Fahrenheit were expected, but with the humidity it could feel like 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more, the service said.

Philadelphia declared a heat health emergency for Thursday and Friday, activating cooling centers, home visits by field teams, outreach to people experiencing homelessness and other services.