Crossing America: Day 5

Oakbrook, Illinois to Portage, Wisconsin
August 4th
Distance: 176 mi
Time In Truck: 2pm to 5pm


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SIDEBAR-Hours after we left Chicago they got slammed with a major storm:

Severe storms rattle Chicago, suburbs
Thunderstorm watch remains

By Dan P. Blake, Steve Schmadeke and Jeremy Gorner

Chicago Tribune staff reporters

7:01 AM CDT, August 5, 2008

Clean-up efforts were under way Tuesday morning after a line of severe thunderstorms moved through the Chicago area Monday night, downing trees and power lines, starting fires, peeling off roofs, briefly closing down both Chicago airports and ending a Cubs game after two rain delays.

About 225,000 Commonwealth Edison customers were without power.

A severe-thunderstorm watch was in effect until 9 a.m. for Grundy and Livingston Counties, the weather service said.

A little over 2 inches of rain fell at O'Hare International Airport during a six-hour span, the weather service said.

Powerful winds and apparently lightning destroyed part of the roof near the main entrance of St. Charles North High School in the far west suburb, which led to water damage to the hallways, guidance center and potentially a portion of the library, said School District 303 Supt. Don Schlomann. Members of a youth baseball group in the building when the storm struck were safely evacuated by the Fire Department, he said.

Power and gas service was shut off to the high school Monday night and structural engineers were scheduled to assess the damage Tuesday to see if the school can be ready to open when classes start Aug. 27, Schlomann said.

Summer school classes at Glenbard East High School in west suburban Lombard were canceled for Tuesday due to a power outage, according to the school's Web site.

Lightning may have sparked fires at a Batavia barn and single-family homes in Hillside and unincorporated Downers Grove, fire officials in those areas said. Powerful winds accompanying the storms knocked down power lines throughout the area and ripped the roofs from a Hillside commercial building and at least a half-dozen homes in the Hickory Oaks subdivision in Bolingbrook.

As of 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, some 225,000 Commonwealth Edison customers were without electricity in northern Illinois due to the weather, according to Jeff Burdick, a ComEd spokesman, who said utility crews had already restored power to more than 175,000 customers since the storms began earlier Monday night.

Of those currently without power, Burdick said, more than 100,000 were in the Chicago area.

Burdick said more than 270 crews, consisting of two to four people, have been working around the clock to restore power, but it was expected to be a multiple-day effort.

In Chicago, there were numerous downed power lines and fires at single-family homes and apartment buildings that were weather-related, said Larry Langford, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman. Many of the fires were "roof or attic" fires, indicating that lightning may have played a role in the blazes, he added..

Langford said the fires, which were put out quickly upon the firefighters' arrival, caused no serious injuries. Firefighters, however, had to rescue several people trapped in their cars under flooded viaducts at various locations on the North and South Sides, he noted.

As of 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, crews from the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation responded to reports of 1,104 damaged trees, 132 malfunctioning traffic signals, 55 damaged street light poles and 92 downed wires. The department said there were also 194 city blocks without working street lights.

A trained spotter reported a tornado touched down in Elmhurst, weather service officials said, but Elmhurst officials said the report was incorrect.

"There was no tornado that touched down," said Elmhurst Police Sgt. Bob Tannehill. "We just had some heavy winds come through the area—some trees down, nothing major, and some downed power lines."

Elmhurst authorities said the minor damage was not confined to any single area of town. No injuries were reported.

Spotters also reported funnel clouds in other west suburbs and officials in Schiller Park said their town suffered wind damage.

In Michigan City, Ind., high winds caused a tree to fall on a car, killing a 23-year-old Michigan City man, authorities said.

About 8 p.m. in downtown Chicago, a calm, warm, humid evening turned into a frightening lashing of wind and strong rains. Tornado sirens could be heard at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs game was delayed twice by the rain.

Thousands of fans were evacuated to the stadium's concourse. Officials warned fans through a public-address system and on the scoreboard to get into the lower levels of the stadium, but thousands remained in their seats. Several fans ran out onto the field and slid on the rain tarp before being pulled away.

There was heavy tree damage in south Maywood and Broadview. Many roads were impassable because of the fallen tree branches.

"This happened so fast," said Broadview resident Roberta McGill, who was taking pictures of a large tree branch that fell on the parkway outside her home. She and her daughter, Nia, 14, saw the sky turn black and green and quickly headed to the basement to wait out the storm. "We hate to lose that tree. That's a lot of shade."

A couple of blocks away in Broadview, Azariah Israel arrived home just after the storm to find a large branch from a backyard tree down across his deck. "It could have been worse," he said.

A window reportedly broke on the 40th floor of the John Hancock Center at 875 N. Michigan Ave. Chestnut Street and Michigan Avenue were closed to traffic. Flooded streets were reported in several suburbs from Tinley Park to Elgin.

Winds of 94 m.p.h. were reported at the Harrison-Dever Crib, about 3 miles offshore in Lake Michigan.

The weather temporarily halted flights at both Chicago airports, according to the city's Department of Aviation. By 9:45 p.m. air travel resumed at O'Hare International and Midway Airports. Nevertheless, flights late Monday night were experiencing delays of up to one hour at O'Hare and 90 minutes at Midway with scattered cancellations.

During the tornado warning, which ended a little before 9 p.m. Monday, O'Hare travelers were temporarily moved to a lower level at the terminals, officials said. More than 350 flights were canceled during the height of the storms.

At Wrigley Field, the game resumed about 10:30 p.m. but was halted again and, subsequently, called due to another round of rain and lightning that began shortly after 11 p.m.

In Bourbonnais, a tornado warning forced the Bears to halt their practice at about 8:30 p.m. and clear the field.

On Tuesday, the Chicago area should see partly sunny skies with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms may produce heavy rainfall, according to the weather service. High temperatures in the mid 80s are expected and winds would be coming from the north around 10 mph.

Tribune reporters Hal Dardick, Josh Noel and Ted Gregory, freelance reporter Victoria Pierce and The Associated Press contributed to this report. dpblake@tribune.comsschmadeke@tribune.comjgorner@tribune.com

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