In a flash, heavy rain and strong winds came through.
And in a flash, Evanston homeowner Ned Brown's 300-year-old tree came crashing down.
"I started to hear the crash and the boom, I knew a branch was going down I didn't think the whole tree was coming down," Brown said.
"It ripped the front of the house water was pouring in," he said. "The entire enclosed porch and the living room, the roof is gone, the entire front of the house has to be rebuilt and the chimney has to be rebuilt."
The house had to be covered quickly in preparation for more rain.
The bad weather and lightning caused a fire at a condo complex in Schererville, Indiana in the 200-block of Joliet Street.
Someone was trapped inside an elevator when the power was cut in the area. No one was injured but at least 24 residents were displaced.
The weather was so wild in Indiana that people in Munster even saw hail.
In Aroma Park, near Kankakee, the afternoon storms knocked down trees some even landed on homes.
