Sunday's 17th annual 'Y-ME Walk and Run' for breast cancer awareness went off despite torrential rains that soaked motivated participants to the bone.
One cancer survivor's poncho said it all Sunday. It read, "Rain? Ha. I survived chemo."
"Everybody's wet, but they're still happy. It's such a great tribute to how important this cause is that so many thousands of people are willing to come out and brave the weather," said Margaret Kirk, CEO of Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization.
"We had people cheering on the runners as we went by. Everyone was very enthusiastic. Yeah, we got a little wet, and the wind blew a lot, but we did not let that deter us at all," said Mary Holmes, a breast cancer survivor.
However, those trying to navigate the streets around North Michigan Avenue Sunday morning, fought a losing battle with their umbrellas. So many were blown out that you had to wonder, why even bother trying to open it?
By early afternoon, most of the rain had ended and the wind started to die down. But, the extreme weather did leave some scattered damage behind. At 2551 W. Cortland, a tree fell on a house. Fortunately, there were only a few broken windows as a result.
Not so lucky was the Blake family, whose car was totaled when part of a tree collapsed on the street at Laramie and Collum.
"I heard the crash. I looked out the window. I thought it hit both my cars. Our other car was across the street," said Donald Blake. "I just finished paying on it last Saturday. I just made the last payment. It only had 22,000 miles on it."
"We wanted to trade in our other car. [The] wrong car got hit by the tree," Mary Blake said.
Airports are usually the first to suffer as a result of weather problems. Both Midway and O'Hare airports were reporting average delays of approximately 30 minutes Sunday evening.
