Storms rake suburbs, down power lines
The storms that rolled through the suburbs late Friday afternoon left a line of damage in their path, including downed trees and power lines.
An Itasca Fire Protection District official said the storm was so bad that it may have been a microburst or tornado that passed through town after 4:30 p.m.
Village President Jeff Pruyn said he was walking home from his office in downtown Itasca when he witnessed the storm. A number of trees were uprooted, and power was out through much of the village, he said.
Itasca Director of Police Robert O'Connor said the storm hit the center of town around 4:30 p.m.
The storm came barreling down the Irving Park corridor, leaving its mark on interior streets to the north and south.
He said the department has yet to receive a report of a single injury.
However, he said the storm inflicted heavy property damage to homes and businesses.
“There are trees down throughout town,” he said. “Some of these trees are 57 years old, and they literally uprooted. About 10 homes had trees actually upon their structure, whether it be the roof or the front of the home.”
There were power outages in the center of town. ComEd and Nicor were on the scene Friday night.
A Red Cross center is being set up at the police department, particularly for elderly residents without power.
O'Connor said the department was arranging to have cooling buses brought in, noting that the department itself was operating on a generator.
He said the department was working with DuPage County's department of homeland security and emergency management.
“The first priority is to get the roads clear,” he said. “We took a big hit here. We're just trying to clean up the town as best we can right now.”
Driving through the storm proved treacherous.
Wood Dale resident Kevin Whitson, who works at the Des Plaines post office, recounted his adventurous commute, saying, “It just got crazy.”
He said he had to detour through Elk Grove Village because roads, including Irving Park Road, were shut down, with fallen trees causing blockages.
Whitson said his car dodged heavy hail as it traveled along Devon Avenue.
“You couldn't even see,” he said.
The road was flooded in spots, he said.
“It was basically driving through a lake,” he said. “Some of the communities over there were just under water.”
At one point, he encountered chairs scattered across the roadway.
The entire trip took two hours, he said.
The storms also disrupted Metra service. According to agency spokeswoman Meg Reile, outbound trains on the Milwaukee West line delayed more than an hour Friday, while inbound service was blocked for several hours because trees and branches fell on the tracks.
Another community affected by the afternoon's storm was Streamwood.
According to the Streamwood Fire Department, firefighters responded to numerous calls for service, mostly involving power lines downed by trees and tree branches.
Firefighters said a commercial building on the 500 block of Bartlett Road sustained significant damage as a result of high winds. The roof surface was peeled back, and rooftop air conditioning units were displaced. The building sustained extensive water damage and was closed to the public.
Also, a home on Rosewood Drive was hit by lightning, causing damage to its chimney.
The head of the Fox Waterway Agency, meanwhile, warned that the late-afternoon storms were expected to cause additional flooding, especially along the Fox River.
Joseph S. Keller, executive director of the agency that oversees the Chain O' Lakes and a portion of the Fox River, said the National Weather Service had forecast a 3-inch band of rain along the Wisconsin/Illinois border Friday night, while the rest of the area was expected to receive about 2 inches.
The Chain and upper and lower Fox River remain closed because of flooding from heavy rain during the last 10 days.
Earlier, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch starting at 4 p.m. for the suburbs. The watch includes Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.
The National Weather Service predicted that thunderstorms with heavy rain were likely to move across the region through this morning.
Heavy rains could worsen flooding along the Des Plaines and Fox rivers, the weather service said.