Punishing storm socks suburbs

There was no confirmed tornado Thursday afternoon, but the storm that blasted through the Northwest suburbs felt like a hurricane.As residents emerged from their homes and workplaces after the all-clear, the sight was stunning. Strong trees were snapped, if not uprooted outright.Roofs had been peeled from buildings. Workers heading home were bewildered by deep water that pooled on roadways, or stuck for hours on expressways that turned into parking lots.At the height of the storm, drivers on area expressways pulled off to the side, unable to see more than a few feet ahead, their vehicles buffeted by gusts that reached 60 mph.In West Chicago, the roof of an industrial building collapsed with as many as 40 workers inside. Seven people were sent to area hospitals.In Mount Prospect, which was hit particularly hard, officials are calling Thursday's storm the worst in village history. Hundreds -- maybe even more than 1,000 -- trees were uprooted or broken, Fire Chief Michael Figolah said.He added hundreds of wires were downed, railroad gates were broken and almost every intersection in the center of town or south was without power."We have never witnessed such devastation," Mount Prospect Mayor Irvana Wilks said Thursday night.And it looks like people will need to be prepared for several days without power, Figolah said.Besides the widespread lack of electricity -- as many as 310,000 Thursday night -- National Weather Service officials warned suburban residents to prepare for flooding, with one to two inches of rain drenching an already waterlogged area."That's what we're worried about right now," meteorologist Nathan Marsili said. "It could turn out to be a pretty bad flooding situation for the area."The Des Plaines River was more than 3 feet above flood stage north of Waukegan.In the far northern suburb of Fox Lake, the Fox River flooded some homes while other residents stacked sandbags to protect their houses, said Ami McEwan, assistant administrator for Lake County."Most of them are sandbagging and keeping it at bay," she said.In downtown Gurnee, workers were stacking sandbags to protect an elementary school from the Des Plaines River, she said.Meteorologist Stephen Rodriguez said the culprit was a fierce multi-cell storm -- a combination of several smaller storms that came together and traveled in the same direction for a while.Multi-cell storms do occur, particularly this time of year, but the severity of this one marked it as unusual, Rodriguez said.Winds of 58 mph were recorded at O'Hare International Airport at 3:26 p.m., and 60 mph in both Des Plaines and Streamwood.The National Weather Service won't be able to confirm until today if there were tornado touchdowns, meteorologist Gino Izzi said.About 500 flights were canceled at O'Hare on Thursday evening and passengers were delayed more than 2#189; hours, said Chicago Aviation Commissioner Nuria Fernandez. Delays at Midway Airport averaged 1#189; to 2 hours.Metra officials were reporting delays of more than an hour during the evening rush hour due to debris on the tracks and gates snapped by the strong winds.In Schaumburg, minor injuries occurred when windows were blown out of a Jewel store at Wise and Roselle roads and when an outdoor tent collapsed at the Schaumburg Marriott. Two people were slightly hurt in each incident.The roof of Car Doctor Inc. at 505 Estes Ave. in Schaumburg was blown completely off. There no injuries, acting police Sgt. John Nebl said.Downed trees blocked East Seegers Road between South Arlington Heights Road and South Goebbert Road in Arlington Heights. Debbie Rodriguez, who lives on the street, said her family retreated to the basement."We were coming home and we could see the sky was not looking right," she said. "Sirens were going off, and we just came in and ran to the basement."It was like a monsoon."There were multiple reports of roof and chimney damage across Schaumburg, particularly in a subdivision at the northwest corner of Wise and Plum Grove roads.In Mount Prospect, Figolah said the village was trying Thursday night to open roads to emergency traffic only, establishing shelter for anyone in need and working with ComEd to prioritize work on the downed lines.Also, the village has teams walking the neighborhoods to establish a damage assessment and to check on residents, he said.Resident Sue Argenio said driving through Mount Prospect was "a mess, a total mess.""It took me 20 minutes to get from Emerson (Street) and Prospect Avenue to Louis Street and Council (Trail), because every street was blocked," she said.Figolah said the village is concerned there are many downed wires that have yet to be identified and hopes people will stay inside until daylight to avoid walking into trouble."I know the people of our village are resilient," Wilks said. "For the next few days, I call on each person to check on someone who might need help. They might be elderly. They may have small children. They may be frail or they may be alone."I have great faith in the people of Mount Prospect, and I know we will get through this together."Northwest Suburban High School District 214 canceled all outdoor after-school activities after losing power at Prospect High School, Rolling Meadows High School and Buffalo Grove High School, and the school board canceled its Thursday night meeting. Later Thursday night, District 214 announced all its schools would be closed today.The village of Barrington Thursday night said it activated its emergency operations center, coordinating public works, firefighters, police and citizen volunteers to help residents protect themselves and property. The village said it would be sandbagging critical areas to prevent further flooding and offer sandbags to residents at its public works facility.Chicago also got hit hard: the Streets and Sanitation Department released a memo Thursday afternoon saying there were 1,818 cases of tree damage, 114 traffic signals out, 79 damaged light poles and 136 streetlight wires down.Gov. Rod Blagojevich said the State Emergency Operations Center was monitoring the severe weather in Northern Illinois, and coordinators at the Illinois Emergency Management Agency were in contact with local officials to determine where state assistance is needed. 512327Arlington heights resident Victor Dula cleans up an uprooted tree at Seegers Road in Arlington Heights.Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer 512316Arlington Heights resident Teresa Bonilla cleans up her front driveway from snapped tree limbs, one of which landed on her car and broke the rear window.Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer 512329Evening rush hour traffic backs up as commuters try to ply their way through the afternoon storms.Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer 512314Kirk Sneeden unplugs the sewer drain at the intersection of Milbrook and Chesterfield in Arlington Heights, which had knee deep water back-up.Mark Welsh | Staff Photographer