Searing heat and storms mar holiday with 3 children dead in Wisconsin and utility outages widespread

LAKE GENEVA, Wis. (AP) — Three children who died when a boat capsized in Geneva Lake during a Wisconsin storm were wearing life vests, authorities said as the nation assessed damage from storms and a heat wave that marred the July Fourth holiday, leaving hundreds of thousands of utility customers without power.

The tragedy in Wisconsin’s Walworth County in a part of Southern Wisconsin that has long served as a favorite vacation getaway for residents of the Chicago area came with a storm that downed trees, ruptured power lines and made transportation treacherous and complicated across multiple states.

It was a trio of calamities that repeated itself each time storms doused a region. After a similarly vicious storm struck the New York area late Friday, hundreds of thousands of utility customers were left without power, trains to New Jersey were canceled and thousands of trees were damaged or uprooted.

Combined with the Midwest storms, nearly 1 million residents were left powerless. By noon Saturday, about 750,000 utility customers were powerless in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and New Jersey.

But the Wisconsin deaths stood out for how quickly the extreme weather could turn a holiday weekend pleasure outing into a nightmare.

As the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Geneva Lake Law Enforcement Agency investigated the Geneva Lake tragedy, the city's police department issued a statement blaming it on a “sudden and severe storm” that rapidly produced hazards for boats.

It said a privately owned recreational motorboat carrying 10 occupants, including four children, tried to race to safety before it was overwhelmed by severe wind and waves. As it took on water, it eventually capsized and sank, the release said.

Six adults and a child were rescued from the water, but three children recovered from the lake after an intensive search were unresponsive to exhaustive lifesaving measures administered as soon as they were found, police said.

Officials confirmed that all four children on board were wearing life jackets, police added.

After the storm, Lake Geneva Mayor Todd Krause declared an emergency and said one person suffered minor injuries after being struck by a falling tree while downed power lines and trees blocked some streets.

The storms that rolled through the Midwest and Northeast on Friday led multiple cities to cancel holiday festivals and reschedule fireworks displays. Mayor Frank Velez in Belleville, New Jersey, rescheduled them for next year, telling residents: “While we’re disappointed we couldn’t celebrate together tonight, your safety will always come first."

By noon on July Fourth, temperatures across parts of the Northeast were already soaring back toward triple digits, resuming conditions likely to be relieved by the storms predicted to follow, leaving temperatures much lower for the start of a new week.

A person shields themselves from the sun at Pier 57 during a heat wave ahead of the International Parade of Sail, Saturday, July 4, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Sydney Schaefer)

A person shields themselves from the sun at Pier 57 during a heat wave ahead of the International Parade of Sail, Saturday, July 4, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Sydney Schaefer)

A tree ripped from the ground by a severe storm is surrounded by police tape in Hoboken, N.J., early Saturday, July 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Reed Hoffmann has been a freelance photographer for The Associated Press for more than a quarter of century. Before moving to the Kansas City area, he was a newspaper photographer for more than 20 years. He covers breaking news in addition to various sporting events for the AP.

As we enter the final rounds of the World Cup, The Associated Press has five photographers covering every match. Four are in different spots around the pitch at field level and one in an overhead position, called the “tribune.” That was me for Friday night’s game between Colombia and Ghana. During halftime an announcement was made for fans to scan a QR code shown on the stadium screens to take part in a light show. Since I also cover the Kansas City Chiefs there, and they do that occasionally, I knew what was coming. The stadium lights would flash on and off with music playing, and fans’ smartphones would also turn on and off.

I’m normally shooting a telephoto lens at either 400mm or 560mm for action, but have a second camera with a wide-angle lens for overall photos. Once they made that announcement, I grabbed the second camera, changed the settings for less light and waited for the right moment. With action I’m always shooting at over 1/1000 second to stop action, but for this I dropped the shutter speed to 1/80 second and braced the camera on the railing in front of me.

It’s rare for the lights to be off in a stadium during a night game, so that, paired with the tens of thousands of smartphone lights, created a scene few people ever see. For most of the light show, though, the stadium lights were just changing in brightness. There were only two brief moments the lights were completely off, and I waited for those. In photography, different is good, so I try to keep that in mind with every assignment I do. And this was very different.

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Fans take part in a light show with their mobile phones during halftime in the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between Colombia and Ghana in Kansas City, Mo., Friday, July 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)