A line of potent storms ripped through Northwest Indiana and Chicago's south suburbs Wednesday night, knocking out power, flooding streets, tipping trees, starting small fires and dropping golf ball-sized hail.

About 9:30 p.m., NIPSCO spokesman Larry Graham said some customers likely still would be without power today. About 15,000 homes and businesses served by NIPSCO had lost power, Graham said.

Roughly 200 ComEd customers in the southeast Chicago suburbs were without power immediately after a storm at 9 p.m., said ComEd spokesman Jeff Burdick.

Winds uprooted trees and dropped them on a roof in north Hammond, said Suzette Kubacki, who lives on Cameron Avenue.

"It's a mess over here," said Kubacki. "It was bad here. Bad."

Police radios popped with reports of flooded streets, downed power lines, trees on homes and trees blocking roadways.

Power intermittently died along U.S. 30 in Indiana.

At 9:25 p.m., Hobart dispatchers were dealing with 75 calls on their screens.

Portions of state roads flooded, but none were blocked, according to Indiana State Police.

The National Weather Service was investigating reports of a tornado in Porter County at 9:30 p.m., said Tim Halbach, an NWS meteorologist. People reported golf ball-sized hail in Lake County, he said, and wind reportedly gusted to 70 mph in Gary.

Storm sewers along Highland's 99th Place didn't drain rainwater, said resident Melissa Magurany. "Cars were having a hard time passing," she said.

Johnnie Carrillo, of North Hammond, said the storm sounded like a train.

"Lord have mercy," he said. "I've never seen anything like it."