Woman recounts being stuck on I-55 for 5 hours after storm hit; Expressway reopens in Channahon

JOLIET, Ill. (WLS) -- A seven-mile stretch of I-55 has reopened in Will County Thursday morning after being closed since Monday night.

It took ComEd crews several days to safely clear power lines that fell, during Monday's tornado in Channahon.

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A driver who's car was stuck in that mess talked about those terrifying moments during the storm.

Channahon's Jennifer Sternal says she's feeling lucky to be alive days after driving into that dangerous storm on I-55 and becoming trapped near downed power lines for hours.

She describes the surreal ordeal as something out of a movie.

"You hear this blaring alarm and the wind and the rain," Sternal said. "Like I've seen this once or twice in my life, so this doesn't always end well."

Sternal recounts the uncertain moments Monday night when she became trapped on I-55 in Channahon as an EF-2 tornado touched down, snapping power poles, crumpling transmission towers and strewing power lines across the interstate.

"Once it hit me that I'm stuck behind these powerlines and nowhere to go and this storm is shaking my car back and forth that's really when it set in for me that I was scared," Sternal said.

Sternal took videos on her phone showing the wreckage the storm left behind.

broken power lines on the ground could be seen stretching across I-55, semi-trucks smashed, cars in the median and bystanders on the interstate.

"I almost didn't have time to process it. It felt like it was going in slow motion," Sternal said.

Sternal said she was stuck on the interstate for more than five hours before she was finally able to link up with family to safely take her home.

She said she had to leave her car on I-55 for three days until it was safe for her to pick it up.

"I did have to climb through the median and through the retaining wall to get to my ride, so like the weeds were thorny and like waist high, I was in flip-flops and it was soaking wet," Sternal said.

A seven-mile stretch of I-55 in Channahon was shut down for more than three days as ComEd crews worked around the clock to clear debris from the interstate - a complex leading to lengthy delays and detours for drivers.

Authorities officially reopened the interstate just after 3 a.m.

Jennifer said she felt so lucky after making it through the storm that she went out and bought a lottery ticket just to see how far she could push that luck.

Power outages continue

People continue to deal with power outages from Monday night's storms.

Thornton resident Bill Somme, 81, is struggling without a generator. He's keeping food in a cooler and sleeping in his car to avoid the heat.

"Do something about what you can do something about," he said. "This we have no choice, so we just live with it."

Thursday morning ComEd is reporting more than 18,000 customers across the area are still without power.

The Red Cross passed out meals to storm victims in Joliet on Thursday. Dozens of volunteers directed residents to get hot lunches after this week's storms knocked out power to thousands in their area.

Dozens of volunteers directed residents to get hot lunches Thursday after this week's storms knocked out power to thousands in the Joliet area.

Annie Bobel said she lost power, as did her daughter.

"I know my daughter, she is trying to clean up, she hasn't gone grocery shopping. She has a big ice puddle to clean up," Bobel said. "It is what it is. Mother Nature got us..."

Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy said at the worse point this week a third of Joliet residents were without power.

"It started out Sunday. We had a microburst that started Sunday morning early and that hit most of down town and near east and west sides then we had more storms roll in that aggravated even further out," D'Arcy said. "We recognize there was a lot of people who lost refrigeration and lost all their food, and sometimes they can't get out of their house so easy, so we started calling around to mobilize the food banks."

Victory City Church hosted Thursday's food giveaway. They plan to host another event on Friday. Pastor Rusty Railey said the church did supply giveaways during COVID and was ready to help their neighbors this week.

"We had about a two-hour window and we were able to get about 40-50 volunteers within that window yesterday as you can see another 30-40 we will have more tonight," Railey said.

Among the volunteers was Stacy Blackburn, whose family lost power Monday night. She was out of town during the storms and is now helping with the aftermath.

"It looked like a war zone just in our area, so I was very surprised and grateful," Blackburn said.

Mayor D'Arcy said the last 200 residents without power were expected to have it restored Thursday.

The National Weather Service said preliminary information shows at least 22 tornadoes hit the Chicago region on Monday night, including:

• EF-2 tornado from Channahon to Matteson


• EF-1 tornado from Yorkville to Naperville


• EF-1 tornado on the Near West Side of Chicago to the far western portions of the Loop


• EF-1 tornado from Chicago Lawn to West Englewood


• EF-1 tornado from Cedar Lake to Crown Point


• EF-1 tornado in Minooka/Joliet


• EF-1 tornado from Sugar Grove to Aurora


• EF-1 tornado from Flossmoor to Thornton


• EF-1 tornado near Grant Park (Kankakee County)


• EF-0 tornado in Villa Park


• EF-0 tornado in Justice


• EF-0 tornado from Crest Hill to Lockport


• EF-0 tornado in southern Winnebago County


• EF-0 tornado in Byron


• EF-0 tornado in Davis Junction


• EF-0 tornado from Sugar Grove to North Aurora


• EF-0 tornado from Crestwood to Blue Island


• EF-0 tornado in West Town (Chicago)


• EF-0 tornado from Shelby to Wheatfield Township


• EF-0 tornado in Peotone


• EF-0 tornado in Manteno


• EF-0 tornado from Glen Ellyn to Lombard


• EF-0 tornado in Villa Park

Two other confirmed tornadoes touched down in the city on Sunday. The NWS does not have any previous documentation of multiple tornadoes touching down in the Chicago city limits area on back-to-back days.

At least six Chicago-area tornadoes were confirmed on Sunday:

• EF-1 tornado in Elburn


• EF-0 tornado in St. Charles


• EF-0 tornado from La Grange to Cicero


• EF-0 tornado from Midway to Bronzeville


• EF-0 tornado in Esmond


• EF-0 tornado from Englewood to Jackson Park