Indiana, Natural Disaster | featured news

For most of the U.S., Hurricane Isaac has come and gone, and now Southerners and Midwesterners are grappling with the good and bad it left behind. Evacuation orders eased for parts of Louisiana, and many Missouri residents saw the possible end of a long and painful drought when Isaac passed over the state Friday and Saturday, dumping much of its strength before going on to Illinois and Indiana.

About 3.5 million customers were without power in the eastern United States on Saturday amid a record heat wave after deadly thunderstorms knocked down trees and power lines from Indiana to New Jersey.

An Indiana mom who saved her children's lives by shielding them with her own body during a tornado has lost parts of both of her legs. 36-year-old Stephanie Decker said in an interview with Fox59 that she picked her children, 8-year-old Dominic and 5-year-old Reese, up early from school when she heard the storm was approaching. They were in the family's basement when the storm hit.

Officials in Indiana have lowered the state's death toll from Friday's tornado outbreak to 12 people from the previous 14 and are now concentrating on cleanup work. State police Sgt. Ray Poole said Sunday officials in southern Indiana's Scott County have told the state Department of Homeland Security that the county had one death rather than the three they first reported. Poole says he doesn't know the reasons for the confusion.

A small pre-dawn earthquake has hit northern Illinois, startling sleepy-eyed residents as far away as Iowa and Indiana, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported.