Thousands without power in Chicago area after storms spawn at least 25 tornadoes in 2 days
EF-2 tornado confirmed from Channahon to Matteson
CHICAGO (WLS) -- There were still more than 65,000 ComEd customers without power Wednesday morning across the Chicago area after Monday evening's powerful storms.
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The storms spawned at least 25 tornadoes in the Chicago area. The cleanup efforts were still underway Wednesday morning.
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ComEd said more than 3,000 utility workers are working around-the-clock to restore power.
According to ComEd, at the height of the storm, more than 430,000 customers were in the dark.
The storms brought many tornadoes, causing widespread damage.
RELATED | Parts of I-55 in Channahon could reopen Thursday morning as crews clear debris from storm
In the city's West Town neighborhood, heavy rain and strong winds brought down trees, limbs and branches near cars and outside homes.
"It's been around maybe 18 hours. The lights are off, and we don't know what we're going to do about it," said Abdeel Bedeeh, whose store lost power.
In west suburban Broadview, crews were called to the 2200-block of 24th Avenue, where a large section of the roof of an apartment buildings blew off. It landed on the ground, hitting several vehicles.
And public works teams were busy one block over removing fallen branches and debris from trees.
ComEd said 99% of its customers should have power restored by Friday evening.
A flooded Metra station that also lost power will reopen Wednesday in University Park.
The Metra Electric stop was expected to open at 2:30 p.m.
Power was slowly being restored in Thornton, but at one point Wednesday evening ComEd reported more than 90% of customers in the village were still without electricity.
The hum of generators have provided a soundtrack of discontent. One resident, 81-year-old Bill Sommer, doesn't have a generator. He's been keeping food from his fridge in a cooler and sleeping in his car to beat the heat.
"Do something about what you can do something about. This we have no choice. So we just live with it," Sommer said.
Thornton received a direct hit from the storm, which uprooted numerous trees there, many landing on power lines.
There's also damage to the roof of a community center, which is attached to the police department...
Thornton resident Cheryl Flory has been charging her phone an hour at a time at a nearby Starbucks.
"I wouldn't say it's a hardship, but it's definitely an annoyance, and you have to plan for that," Flory said. "All of a sudden, you're planning for more time for everything."
ComEd is getting help from more than 1,000 workers from other utilities, including 300 from Canada.
"They're facing downed trees, branches all over," ComEd V.P. Neena Hemmady said. "They have downed lines. They have broken poles. These types of outages take awhile to restore."
Sherita Robinson-Sabbat is just one of several blocks of homeowners along Terrace Avenue in south suburban Lynwood who have been without electricity since Monday's severe storms knocked out power. For her and her two children, Wednesday was just another day of taking turns sitting in the family car to keep cool and charge their phones until the power comes back on.
The educator said after two days of no AC or electricity, being inside her home is unbearable. Robinson-Sabbat hopes service will be restored Wednesday as she said ComEd had promised, but if it isn't, the family is headed to a hotel.
"Try not to be at the upper level, 'cause that's where the most heat is," Robinson-Sabbat said. "We're downstairs. The patio door is open. It's very hot. We're having to put candles on a night just to see, which isn't always safe."
Another neighborhood resident, Stacy Jenkins, was lucky enough to finally find a temporary generator, but not before having to throw out what she said was hundreds of dollars of food that spoiled during the outage.
Jenkins said the utility giant called the outage an act of God, and said they told her they probably won't reimburse her for her loss.
"They're not giving you an update, so then they start saying power would be back on by Wednesday at 3 p.m." Jenkins said. "Wednesday come... now they are telling us Friday."
Lynwood and other south suburbs were hit hard by the bad weather. Residents said they understand that thousands of people lost power and that ComEd is working to restore service, they just don't understand why its taking so long for their suburb.
Ernest Griffin showed up for his job working at the neighborhood corner store only to find out it was still closed because there's no power. For him and others at the strip mall, that means another day without pay.
"That's closed down. There's a barber shop closed down, and that's where people make their money by working," Griffin said.
Fellow south suburbanite Cathy Burke said she has service and only lost power for about 15 minutes during the storms. Wednesday afternoon, she checked on her friend's mother, who is in her 80s.
ComEd issued a statement, saying in part, "ComEd has dispatched thousands of crew members who are working around the clock to repair damage across the service territory. To date more than 387,000 customers have been returned to service, and work is ongoing to restore every last storm-related outage safely, and as quickly as possible."
More people across the southwest suburbs are also still dealing with quite the mess in the aftermath of Monday night's storms.
The national weather service confirmed an EF-1 tornado tore through parts of Joliet with winds surpassing 110 miles per hour.
"Heavy winds... power was flickering in and out and you can just hear the wind... it sounded like a train outside," Joliet resident Eric Libner said.
Libner lives in the Marycrest neighborhood of Joliet, where he said he still has no power. He said the damage from the tornado was unlike anything he's ever seen.
"First time ever experiencing something like that... it was a shock... but gotta be thankful no one was hurt," Libner said.
It was a similar situation in Elwood, where that EF-1 tornado temporarily knocked out power while sending debris across the neighborhood.
Elmwood resident Mike Ulanowski was home with his wife at the time a tree came right through his roof.
"I was in bed and she's screaming and that woke me up in a panic, and boom, lightning, and tree limb came through the roof and split us two," Ulanowski said.
The homeowners have really had their hands full over the last two days as some of the debris remains. Sheds have come away from yards, with trees and branches scattered, and it's taken a community effort to clean all of it up.
"Lotta stuff we were all outside flash lighting... just doing head counts, making sure everyone is good," resident Kevin Errek said. so far everybody was perfect, and next morning chainsaws and start helping everyone out."
The National Weather Service said preliminary information shows at least 12 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-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
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
