The effects of Hurricane Ike in inland North America, in September 2008, were unusually intense and included widespread damage across all or parts of eleven states – Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio,[1] Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia, (not including Louisiana and Texas where the storm made landfall) and into parts of Ontario as Ike, which had rapidly become an extratropical cyclone, was enhanced by an adjacent frontal boundary and produced widespread winds with gusts to hurricane-force in several areas.

In addition, significant flooding which was already underway due to heavy rain from the front to the north was worsened by rainfall brought on by Ike in parts of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana to the west of the center.

[2] The severe winds reported across the Midwest to the east of the center (although little or no rain fell in many of those areas) were as a result of a combination of factors, including the strength and size of Ike itself allowing for a strong pressure gradient and a well-defined structure, the location on the east side of the storm where the winds are usually stronger in a northward-moving system due to its forward motion, its fast forward motion of about 40 mph (64 km/h), and the warm air ahead of the storm allowed the high winds aloft to reach the surface easier.

At least five tornadoes—all rated EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale—were reported, in Garland, Hot Spring, Lonoke, Perry and Saline Counties.

[11] The high winds in southeastern Missouri, particularly the Bootheel, also blew corn stalks down and caused severe damage to crops.

[16] Near Covington, the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport was also temporarily shut down, and the control tower was evacuated.

Also in Covington, an apartment building lost its entire roof and the Renaissance Hotel also sustained damage.

In Riverside, several neighborhoods and much of the local forest preserve area were submerged in up to 2 to 4 feet of rapidly flowing water by the swollen Des Plaines River.

A state of emergency was declared in Chicago and Cook County as a result of the floodwaters,[11] and was later extended statewide by Governor Rod Blagojevich.

[24] The fields of southern Indiana were heavily impacted, and a spokesman the state's Natural Resource Conservation Service described the situation as a "severe crop loss" and the "worst wind damage I have ever seen".

[28] The remnants of Ike caused a total of 2.6 million power outages in the state of Ohio, 330,000 of them for over a week.

[5] The Cincinnati metropolitan area was hit extremely hard, with over 927,000 households losing power in that region (approximately 2.1 million people).

[36] A curfew was implemented on September 17 in Carlisle due to increased looting activity as a result of the lengthy power outage and damage.

[12] Tens of thousands of people also lost power in northwest Ohio where widespread outages and damage were reported in the Lima and Findlay areas as the center of the storm tracked just to the north and west.

[31] A similar incident in Lorain County also resulted in the death of a young boy who was hit by a fallen tree limb.

Tornado warnings were also issued across Southern Michigan, for Van Buren, Kalamazoo, and Calhoun counties.

[46] The Northern Panhandle of West Virginia also sustained high winds and hail as a result of the storm with widespread tree damage.

[48] In Ontario, Ike's remnants brought a record amount of rain on Sunday, September 14, in the Windsor region.

[51] In the province of Quebec, regions to the north of the Saint Lawrence River received 50 to 70 mm (1.97 to 2.76 in) of rainfall (Hautes-Laurentides, Haute-Mauricie, Réserve faunique des Laurentides, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Charlevoix and Côte-Nord).

[53] In Montreal, high humidity levels pushed by the system caused electrical malfunction one of the lines of the subway, stranding commuters.