Tornadoes kill 2 in northwestern Indiana and raze buildings in Kankakee, Illinois

KANKAKEE, Ill. (AP) — Major storms whipped up tornadoes that killed at least two people in northwest Indiana and leveled buildings in Kankakee, Illinois, authorities said Wednesday, as another round of rain, hail and strong winds made its way through the region.

Several intense supercell thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana the previous day, including one responsible for at least four tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service office in Chicago.

The Newton County Coroner's office said Edward L. Kozlowski, 89, and his wife Arlene Kozlowski, 84, were killed when a tornado struck their home in Lake Village, in northwestern Indiana. The couple appeared to have been killed by blunt force trauma, the coroner's office said, and an autopsy was scheduled for Friday.

“They were wonderful, just really wonderful human beings,” son-in-law Steve Rehfeldt told CBS News in Chicago. “You know, tough old guy and sweet old lady.”

They left behind four children, seven grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The storms shattered windows, tore off roofs and smashed vehicles in Kankakee, Illinois. Wood planks and other debris littered yards, streets and parking lots. A landscape and garden center was seriously damaged, some parts completely destroyed.

Storms also dropped 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) of rain and left piles of hail in the Grand Rapids area in western Michigan, said Alex Manion, a weather service meteorologist in Detroit. Streets flooded, swamping cars with water above their doors in some places.

The weather service said crews were determining the strength and number of tornadoes, and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio remained under a tornado watch Wednesday.

Suspected tornadoes last week killed four people in southwestern Michigan and two in eastern Oklahoma.

In Lake Village, where the Kozlowskis died, crews rescued some people who were trapped in damaged homes. At least 70 utility poles were knocked down and many roads were rendered unpassable, Newton County officials said.

“Please do not come here. Do not try to help right now,” Sheriff Shannon Cothran said in a video shot in front of a destroyed home.

Laurie Postma, a spokesperson for the Lake Township Volunteer Fire Department, said the storm injured less than 10 people in Lake Village. Cothran said no other significant injuries had been reported but search and rescue operations were continuing.

Lake Village is about 60 miles (95 kilometers) southeast of Chicago and 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Kankakee.

David Ferris of Lake Village said he, his wife, and their dogs “rode it out in our downstairs bathtub.” They were unscathed, except for losing power. Ferris, who is a paramedic, helped rescue and treat injured people.

“We had another house where a guy crawled out,” Ferris said. “He was having some trouble breathing because he was covered in house insulation.”

Ferris said a Family Dollar store and a gas station were destroyed, and multiple large trees were uprooted.

Newlywed Cassidy Sinwelski, 23, said she and her husband were aware of the tornado watch in their Lake Village neighborhood and were expecting a run-of-the-mill storm until her husband spotted dark clouds barreling toward them.

“We went into the bathroom, got a piece of plywood and within minutes, I closed my eyes, the lights flickered, and we just — there was nothing,” Sinwelski said.

Then she heard loud rumbles and the sound of shattering glass.

“I just kept crying out for God, because I didn’t know what else to do,” she said.

Jennifer Telford, 49, said she hid in her basement in Lake Village while she followed news reports of the storm. She did not hear the tornado, which struck to the south, but heard the hail pelting her roof.

“The siren in town didn’t go off,” she said. “The sirens outside town did.”

The power was back on in the morning at the truck stop where she works, but elsewhere, “everything is closed due to the downed trees and power lines.”

About 4,300 customers in Lake Village and surrounding communities were without power late Wednesday morning, down from more than 11,000 at the peak of the storm, the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. reported.

In Kankakee, the storms produced exceptionally large hail, ranging from 3 to 5 inches (7.6 to 12.7 centimeters) in diameter. One 6-inch (15.2-centimeter) hailstone may have set a new state record, the weather service said.

A tornado touched down near the fairgrounds before traveling northeast into the small suburb of Aroma Park, where it caused extensive damage, the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office said.

Nine people in the county had minor injuries, officials said at a news conference. Kevin Birk, a meteorologist in the NWS Chicago office, confirmed at least one tornado touched down in the area.

Tholens’ Garden Center on the south side of Kankakee was hit hard by the tornado, owner Nancy Tholen said.

“We have multiple buildings, and lots of them are destroyed,” Tholen said. “This is our 50th year in business, and this was not how we planned to kick off our spring.”

Workers had just left for the day when the tornado hit Tuesday afternoon, she said. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

“You know, we make our living in the next 12 weeks,” Tholen said. “We’ll figure something out to open, but it’s just ... it’s crazy. But again, everybody’s safe, so we’re thankful for that.”

In Aroma Park, just southeast of Kankakee, restaurateur and village trustee Kathleen Slavin watched the destruction of the tornado and “baseball-sized hail” from the village hall, where she attended a village board meeting.

“It took down trees that are probably over a hundred years old, huge trees came down. It took out main power lines,” Slavin said.

Her friend, 69-year-old Ruth Denoyer, swept up glass after the tornado blew out her windows.

“It took our whole garage down, our pool, we have broken windows in the house, glass everywhere.” Denoyer said. “But we still have a roof, unlike some people out here.”

McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press journalists Hallie Golden in Seattle; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; John O'Connor in Springfield, Illinois; and AP video journalist Laura Bargfeld in Lake Village, Indiana, contributed.

This story has been updated to correct that Cassidy Sinwelski lives in Lake Village, Indiana, and Bargfeld reported from Lake Village, not Kankakee, Illinois.

Debris and piles of hail cover a street after flash flooding in Belknap Lookout neighborhood on the Northeast side of Grand Rapids, Mich. on Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (Joel Bissell/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)

A window is damaged in the aftermath of a powerful storm that ripped through the area a day earlier in Kankakee, Ill., Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Toppled trees lean against a home in the aftermath of a powerful storm that ripped through the area a day earlier in Lake Village, Ind., Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

A storm-damaged Tholens' Landscape & Garden center is seen in the aftermath of a powerful storm that ripped through the area a day earlier in Kankakee, Ill., Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

A storm-damaged Tholens' Landscape & Garden center is in ruins in the aftermath of a powerful storm that ripped through the area a day earlier in Kankakee, Ill., Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

A storm-damaged Tholens' Landscape & Garden center is seen in the aftermath of a powerful storm that ripped through the area a day earlier in Kankakee, Ill., Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

A storm-damaged Tholens' Landscape & Garden center is seen in the aftermath of a powerful storm that ripped through the area a day earlier in Kankakee, Ill., Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Utility poles are damaged in the aftermath of a powerful storm that ripped through the area a day earlier in Kankakee, Ill., Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

CORRECTS STATE TO INDIANA - Debris covers vehicles and damged a structure after a severe storm passed the area in in Lake Village, Ind., late Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (WLS-TV via AP)

CORRECTS STATE TO INDIANA - Debris covers vehicles after a severe storm passed the area in in Kankakee County, Illinois., late Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (WLS-TV via AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States is warning shipping companies that they could face sanctions for making payments to Iran to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

The alert posted Friday by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control adds another layer of pressure in the standoff between the U.S. and Iran over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

About a fifth of the world's trade in oil and natural gas typically passes through the strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf in peacetime.

Iran effectively closed the strait to normal traffic by attacking and threatening to attack ships after the U.S. and Israel launched a war on Feb. 28. It later began offering some ships safe passage by detouring them through alternate routes closer to its shoreline, charging fees at times for the service.

That "tollbooth” effort is the focus of the U.S. sanctions warning.

The payment demands could include transfers not only in cash but also “digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, or other in-kind payments,” including chartibale donations and payments at Iranian embassies, OFAC said.

“OFAC is issuing this alert to warn U.S. and non-U. S. persons about the sanctions risks of making these payments to, or soliciting guarantees from, the Iranian regime for safe passage. These risks exist regardless of payment method,” it said.

The U.S. responded to Iran's closure of the strait with a naval blockade of its own on April 13, preventing any Iranian tankers from leaving and depriving Iran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy.

The U.S. Central Command said 45 commercial ships have been told to turn around since the blockade began.

The warning came as U.S. President Donald Trump swiftly rejected Iran’s latest proposal to end the war between the countries.

“They want to make a deal, I’m not satisfied with it, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump said Friday at the White House. He didn't elaborate on what he saw as its shortcomings but expressed frustration with the Iranian leadership.

“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” Trump said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Iran handed over its plan to mediators in Pakistan on Thursday night.

The shaky three-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to be holding, though both countries have traded accusations of violations. The standoff is increasingly putting pressure on the global economy, driving up prices and leading to shortages of fuel and other products tied to the oil industry.

Negotiations continued by phone after Trump called off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last week, the president said. Trump this week floated a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by America’s Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has briefed many of his regional counterparts on the country's initiatives to end the ear, according to his social media. He also held talks Friday with European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who is in contact with the EU’s Gulf partners.

Fu Cong, the Chinese ambassdor to the United Nations, said Friday that maintaining the ceasefire is “the most urgent issue" as well as bringing together the sides to resume good faith negotiations “to make sure that the ground is laid for reopening of Hormuz.”

Foreign Minister Wang Yi “has been on the phone almost constantly” with representatives from all sides, Fu said, adding that China supports Pakistan’s efforts to mediate between the parties.

Fu stressed the root cause of the tremendous suffering in Iran and neighboring countries and the growing turmoil in the global economy, especially in developing countries, “is the illegitimate war by the U.S. and Israel.”

Edith Lederer at the U.N. contributed to this report

A tanker, left, and a car carrier are anchored at sea in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from the coast near Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 1, 2026.(AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Cargo ships are seen at sea near the Strait of Hormuz, as viewed from a rocky shoreline near Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Men gather along the shore, some crouching and watching a game, as a mix of bulk carriers, cargo ships, and service vessels line the horizon in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, April 27, 2026.(Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)

A man stands in the water, appearing to fish, as bulk carriers, cargo ships, and service vessels line the horizon in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, April 27, 2026.(Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)

An Emirati patrol boat, left, is near a tanker anchored in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from a coastal road near Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)