A 10-year-old boy died and two others were still missing after they were swept away in a drainage ditch in Milwaukee during severe thunderstorms that passed through the region overnight on Monday, bringing heavy rains and flooding to the area, the authorities said.
Chief Aaron Lipski of the Milwaukee Fire Department said at a news conference Tuesday that firefighters had paused rescue efforts after conditions became too dangerous on Monday and resumed their search for the victims.
The authorities said the Milwaukee Police Department was called at about 6 p.m. Monday to the 3800 block of South 25th Street, about four miles from the Mitchell International Airport, for a boy who had slipped into a drainage ditch leading to the Kinnickinnic River.
Witnesses told the police that two men, ages 34 and 37, tried to rescue the boy, who was playing near a drainage ditch when he fell. They were also swept away because of the currents generated by the high water level.
The police and fire departments responded along with members of their dive rescue team. Search operations were suspended by nightfall for the three victims as conditions worsened and uncertainty about what might lay in the underground tunnels increased.
Shortly before noon Tuesday, the authorities located the boy about 2.5 miles from where he disappeared. The police said the boy was dead and that they were still searching for the two other men. Their identities have yet to be released.
Storms swept the Midwest on Monday, bringing an inch and a third of rain to the Milwaukee area from 4:32 p.m. to 5 p.m. The National Weather Service had warned of possible tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds.
The search operations resumed Tuesday and Chief Lipski said the first tunnel, which is more than 900 feet long, did not hold any victims.
The search team moved operations to another set of tunnels that extends underground for 1,900 feet. If conditions worsen or parts of the tunnel are blocked, Chief Lipski said, crews can send a camera inside.
“We’re going to be doing this for a while,” he said of the search, and he added, “If we run into any impassable areas or snags, we can cover both tunnels, at least visually.”
June is typically the peak of severe weather season, said Cameron Miller, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in the Milwaukee-Sullivan region. The storm followed patterns from the last several years, but high moisture and a warm front enhanced the risk for severe weather.
A heat advisory was in effect until Wednesday evening with a heat index that could rise to 106 degrees, according to the Weather Service.
Severe power outages were striking areas of the Midwest, according to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates data from utilities across the country. Nearly 300,000 customers in Ohio and about 20,000 in Wisconsin remained without power on Tuesday afternoon.
The Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center expects temperatures to be cooler than normal in the coming weeks. The longer-term outlook for the summer has higher than normal temperatures and normal precipitation chances. However, specifics of severe weather can’t be forecast too far in advance, Mr. Miller said.
“Be weather aware,” Mr. Miller said. “Have multiple ways to get information.”
Safety guidance from the National Weather Service for severe weather includes recommending that people turn around instead of driving or walking toward running water. Concrete surfaces can make water run faster into drainage ditches, and fallen power lines create risk for electric shock. Six inches of rain can be enough to make a car float, Mr. Miller said.
