Heavy showers and high wind also caused flooding and damaged trees and power lines across Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
About 5 inches of rain drenched eastern Ohio's Coshocton County, where rescuers plucked children from two school buses stuck on flooded roads Wednesday, said Toby Collins of the county's emergency management office.
In West Virginia's Northern Panhandle, lightning set a home on fire in Moundsville, trapping four people before firefighters got them out, said Tom Hart, Marshall County director of emergency services.
In neighboring Monongalia County, six accidents were reported along Interstates 68 and 79 within five minutes, a county emergency operator said. No major injuries were reported.
The area around Dayton, Ohio, got 1.4 inches of rain in a 40-minute period Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of people across the storm zone lost power for a time or were still waiting to get it back.
Tuesday night, a tornado touched down briefly in northwest Ohio, leveling a barn in Allen County. Kevin Baumgart said he saw the twister come over his neighbor's house.
``The rain was coming down so hard, it started coming through my window and hitting the other side of the room,'' he said.
Patty Littleton said she watched as a tornado rip through her neighborhood in Mishawaka, Ind.
``It was trying to pull me off the front porch as I was trying to get in my front door,'' Littleton said. ``It actually lifted me up and threw me against my railing, and my railing went flying.''
In western Pennsylvania, lightning set fires Tuesday that destroyed two buildings, including the 150-year-old Pisgah Presbyterian Church in Corsica, about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
