Windstorms gusting to more than 70 mph swept across the Midwest and the East, knocking out power to more than 1.4 million customers and bringing rain and flooding that flushed out buildings “like a toilet.”

A motorist who drove past a roadblock was swept away by a creek in West Virginia, and in New York a tree fell onto a car, killing the driver. A Virginia teenager was seriously injured when a tree fell on her as she waited for a school bus.

Michigan and Ohio were the hardest hit by power outages, with about 375,000 customers affected in each state. The majority had electricity restored by late Thursday.

Gusts up to 74 mph knocked down trees and power lines in Michigan. Scores of school districts canceled classes, and a live power line fell across Interstate 94 near the Detroit airport, creating a monster traffic jam.

Winds halted boat traffic on the Great Lakes, where waves of up to 16 feet were recorded on lakes Erie and Ontario.

Seven people were injured Wednesday night in Wooster, Ohio, when a tornado damaged a Rubbermaid plant. The twister, with winds of 110 to 130 mph, was on the ground for about 12 miles, said meteorologist Mark Adams of the National Weather Service.

“We’ve had substantial damage,” Rubbermaid spokeswoman Keri Butler said Thursday. The company was still running its distribution site, but manufacturing was shut down.

Another tornado that hit Lexington Township near Alliance, about 50 miles southeast of Cleveland, had winds of 75 to 100 mph and damaged homes and a school, Adams said.

Ambulance paramedic Sherry Dyne rescues a small dog from a mobile home destroyed by a fallen tree in Corry, Pa., about 40 miles southeast of Erie. The dog's elderly owners also had to be rescued Thursday by firefighters as the first winter storm hit the area.

In West Virginia, heavy rain caused flooding Wednesday. A car that had driven around a fire truck and into a creek was found early Thursday, jammed under a bridge in Kanawha County’s Loudendale area. The driver had been swept away.

Loudendale, in a narrow valley packed with houses, got more than 4 inches of rain Wednesday.

Jeff Blount surveyed the damage to his in-laws’ store, where about 4 feet of water turned over display cases. An ice machine and 3,000-gallon kerosene tank were washed away.

“Mother Nature flushed it out like a toilet,” Blount said of the building.

In Sterling, Va., the winds hurled a tree onto a 14-year-old, injuring her as she waited for her bus. And in Victor, N.Y., outside of Rochester, a 37-year-old woman died after winds blew a large tree onto her car.