(CNN) -- Severe weather in the U.S. Midwest and Southeast overnight bedeviled air traffic, knocked out power to large sections of Chicago, Illinois, and pushed rivers and streams out of their banks...Thousands of passengers at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport were significantly delayed early Friday as 90 percent of departures were running late or very late overnight...The weather also cut power to parts of the O'Hare complex, witnesses said Friday, following a day when severe thunderstorms moving slowly through Chicago knocked out power to more than 300,000 customers.

The storms kept people huddled inside businesses -- including taverns -- in Chicago.

"It was out of control," bartender Nick McCann told The Associated Press. "People would not leave. ... We had $2 margaritas, and people were getting hammered."

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