Heavy winds accompanied the rain. A sudden gust blew the roof of a dugout at St. Laurence High School. Baseball players huddled inside.
"My hand was on the roof. I was trying to hold myself up. I heard a crack sound and the roof just flew off and we all jumped on the floor and tried to protect ourselves," said Tom Keating, St Laurence baseball player.
Jim Topps had to get staples to close a gash his head where cinderblocks fell on him.
"It was hot and then it got cold. We didn't know what to expect," said Topps.
In Oak Park the winds blew trees down onto cars. In Cicero, the burst of rain flooded streets and basements.
Jose Cabrera had nearly two feet of water and now he's worried about mold in the basement.
"Most of the things are going in the garbage. The water was pretty dirty," said Cabrera.
The weather combination of extreme heat and storms also created issues for ComEd. As many as 1,600 customers in Cicero had no power at one time, some as a result of downed trees in an alley.
"We do have personnel out there and doing a lot of cleanup work from the storms," said Jeff Burdick, ComEd spokesperson.
On Wednesday night, ComEd restored power to about 1,100 customers in Cicero. There were still several hundred customers in the dark though. They hoped to have that problem restored before the night was over.
