UPDATED AT 12:00 p.m.:

Gov. John Kasich has declared a state of emergency after powerful storms swept through Ohio Friday killed at least one person and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands.

State emergency officials say between 800,000 and 1 million outages were reported as of Saturday morning. Kasich cited the widespread losses combined with excessive heat as factors that could creat a crisis for Ohioans.

Warren County: 21,939 (From Duke Energy and DP&L)

Butler County: 23,000 (From Duke Energy)

Update: 1 a.m.

More than 23,000 people in Butler County were left without power Friday evening as tornado-strength winds and thunderstorms pounded the region.

Heavy winds and rain storms started hitting the area just after 4 p.m. and lasted for approximately two hours, during the height of rush hour. Downed trees and power lines were reported across Butler and Warren counties, landing on houses and crushing cars. No serious injuries were reported from the storm and its fallout.

“What we had was a very large and intense squall line that pushed through the region,” said Julie Reed, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Reed said wind speeds were reported as high as 70 miles an hour in Butler County and closer to 80 mph north of Dayton. Even though the winds were stronger than a weak tornado, no tornado funnel clouds were reported.

The storm stretched from Lima southward into Kentucky. The Kentucky Speedway experienced minor damage, with tents thrown around and NASCAR forced to halt qualifying races.

Duke Energy reported major outages throughout the area, including 23,000 in Butler County and 19,000 in Warren County. More than 3,400 people lost power in Hamilton, with much of it returned around 8:30 p.m.

Steve Vaughn, who lives on Main Street in Hamilton, performed a good deed by taking a chain saw to a tree that had fallen across the driveway of an elderly neighbor.

“It was a pretty powerful storm,” Vaughn said. “Cleaning up is going to be a chore.”

A large oak crushed a pair of cars near the intersection of McKinley and Highland streets. City workers said they were leaving that tree for last to clean up because they knew it would take a long time to remove.

In the Middletown area, trees fell across Main Street, Ohio 4 and Central Avenue. Most of Middletown was without power for several hours.

A silver lining to the storm came in the form of a temporary respite to the record high temperatures that had been cooking the region. Temperatures dropped into the upper 70s by 8 p.m.

Alas, the cooler weather was not to last, Reed said.

Temperatures are predicted to again climb into the 90s today and a chance of more thunderstorms was also probable for Butler and Warren Counties.