Mess left after storms rake DuPage County

Friday morning in DuPage County looked like a picky logging company had come through, snapping select trees and leaving a trail of scattered foliage as it hightailed out of town.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared DuPage County a state disaster area Friday. The move immediately frees up emergency state resources to assist with the cleanup efforts.

The aftermath of Thursday's storms saw the county activate its public works mutual aid system for the first time since it was created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Kevin Watson, Bartlett's assistant director of public works, is chairman of the countywide system.

"We've been in a lull for a while," Watson said. "Obviously, it was just a matter of time."

As a result, Oak Brook public works trucks toiled in Wood Dale while Naperville tree removal crews went to work in ravaged Villa Park.

Storm damage crippled Villa Park so severely that police asked motorists to avoid the north side of the town. More than 1,500 trees fell or were damaged in the village.

"It's devastating," said Josephine Rand, who lives at a Villa Park apartment complex that suffered roof damage. "I haven't seen anything like this in 33 years."

Other communities limped through Friday with various storm wounds.

The National Weather Service confirmed that a rare tornado touchdown occurred Thursday between Winfield and Wheaton.

With winds up to 110 mph, the tornado traveled about two miles from Prince Crossing Road to Gary Avenue. It caused mostly splintered trees and minor property damage, officials said.

In nearby West Chicago, 10 cars Friday sat crushed in the parking lot of Ball Horticultural at 622 Town Road.

The plant nursery suffered 38 downed trees and a garage door and air-conditioning unit blown off their anchors. Sheets of metal dangled on power lines nearby.

Yellow police tape still surrounded Uptime Parts, where 40 people were injured when part of the roof collapsed the day before.

Six of the eight who were hospitalized were at home Friday. Two others, including one man previously listed in critical condition, were in fair condition at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.

Uptime Parts temporarily will relocate to either North Aurora or Batavia for the next few months while repairs to the 180,000-square-foot building are completed.

Sean O'Neill, the company's senior vice president of corporate communications, said the building passed a July 2 roof inspection.

Like Uptime Parts, dozens of schools were out of commission. Five entire districts shut down, mostly because of power outages.

Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 spent time on a different form of damage control.

School officials were handling complaints from angry parents who learned children at both Edison and Monroe middle schools were rushed out of the buildings and bused home minutes before the height of Thursday's storm.

"Our sense was that we thought it safer for the kids to be home rather than in our buildings," district spokesman Bob Rammer said. "The storm approached much faster than anybody anticipated, and it was more intense than the reports we got at that time."

Besides felled trees, power outages were the biggest nuisance DuPage residents dealt with Friday.

About 4,000 Lombard residents, half of Villa Park, and pockets in Wheaton and Glen Ellyn remained dark, just to name a few.

"Villa Park and Lombard were among our hardest hit areas," said Jeff Burdick, a ComEd spokesman.

Residents in both villages were among 108,000 ComEd customers without power since Thursday.

"To get all of these outages restored, we are looking at a multi-day effort," Burdick said, adding that some customers could be aided sooner.

Downed trees and wires, combined with flooding, made getting vehicles to some areas "logistically difficult," Burdick said.

Meanwhile, residents with food slowly spoiling in silent refrigerators had limited dining options when they ventured outside.

The DuPage County Health Department spent much of Friday inspecting more than 100 restaurants without power. Every dining establishment that lost power must have its cooling system and food inspected before re-opening, department spokesman David Haas said.

"They are obligated to call us if they have a power outage," Haas said. "There's always a possibility that somebody didn't. But the vast, vast majority of people are cooperative."

Public works crews also braced for a repeat rainfall by filling sandbags and watching water levels -- both along the DuPage River and at local wastewater treatment plants.

Winfield went as far as to divert village wastewater to a basin to stem the demand on West Chicago's treatment plant, which lost power.

"It wouldn't take an awful lot more rain to cause us problems," Village Manager William Barlow said. "We'll just deal with that if and when the time comes."

In relatively unscathed Naperville, the main concern was rising waters along the Riverwalk.

"It's high and above the lower walk, but not on the brick," said Brad Wilson, Naperville Park District's director of recreation.

It's not uncommon for waters, normally about two feet below the walkway, to rise after heavy rains, said Rick Hitchcock, chairman of the Riverwalk Commission.

"When you have a walkway by the river, sometimes the water comes up," Hitchcock said. "You just have to wait for it to go down."