Several states from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast and east to Virginia prepared for another day of dangerous weather Wednesday after a series of storms brought huge hail and high winds, leaving at least four people hurt in Texas.

The Nation Weather Service Storm Prediction Center said 60 million people should watch out for strong storms. The nastiest weather was predicted for an area from Houston north into part of Iowa.

"This type of environment will support supercells capable of all hazards, although large hail appears to be the primary severe threat," forecasters said.

Hail as big as grapefruit fell in northe Kansas on Tuesday, while winds approaching hurricane force — 74 mph — raked communities from Nebraska and Missouri to Texas. Uprooted trees, downed power lines and roof damage were reported in parts of Texas and Oklahoma.

No deaths were reported. In northe Texas, four people were hospitalized after vehicles they were in were caught up in a toado that hit Tuesday around 10 p.m., Howe Police Chief Carl Hudman said.

Forecasters said last week that the nation could have seen significant toadoes Tuesday, but conditions weren't right for the biggest storms.

Related Image

Susan Goodwyn holds hail in her hand Tuesday, April 26, 2016, in Wichita, Kan. The National Weather Service was waing of the possibility of hail as big as grapefruits in some areas on Tuesday amid storms in parts of the central and easte U.S. Some smaller hail — the size of quarters or smaller — had been reported in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ohio and Texas as of Tuesday afteoon. (Susan Goodwyn/SMGPhotos via AP)Expand / Contract

Susan Goodwyn holds hail in her hand Tuesday in Wichita, Kan. (Susan Goodwyn/SMGPhotos via AP)

Still, the hail and high winds were frightening enough.

Hail 4 inches in diameter fell northwest of Marysville, Kansas, and residents of Topeka, Kansas, eyed the sky nervously during rush hour after forecasters waed that a supercell thunderstorm could produce a toado at any moment.

A rope toado brushed fields south of Wichita, Kansas, and another small twister touched down in southweste Indiana. A storm that cleared Oklahoma City around sunset may have dropped a toado or two during a 90-mile march to Tulsa. Power was knocked out to thousands.

Beginning last Thursday, forecasters said a severe weather outbreak was possible Tuesday and that unsettled weather could bring storms much of the rest of the week. That forecast has held.

The core of the bad weather worries shifts back to Oklahoma and Texas on Thursday and Friday, then Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas on Saturday.

Ahead of Tuesday's storms, as a precaution, some Oklahoma school districts either shuttered schools for the day or sent students home early, hoping they would remain safe.

In Fairview, George Eischen, 51, spent the moing moving Chevies into his shop and showroom to protect them from hail — "the real enemy of the car dealer."

Workers at the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Missouri, did something similar with airplanes when the skies tued a "mean green" ahead of a line of storms.

"We were able to get most of the airplanes into hangars," aviation director John Bales said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.