Winds cut power to thousands in Lake County

High winds knocked down trees, snapped power lines and generally wreaked havoc in Lake County on Friday.

Communities in the center of the county -- particularly Libertyville and Grayslake and the Round Lake area -- seemed to be hardest hit.

The storm was the result of a "wake low"-- a very small, low-pressure system producing high winds -- passing through the northern Illinois area, according to the National Weather Service.

The worst of the storm had moved out of the area by 1 p.m., meteorologists said, allowing the service to cancel its high-wind warning about that time.

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Roughly 69,000 customers in northern Illinois were without power at 12:30 p.m., ComEd spokesman Jeff Burdick said. That figure had dropped to about 40,000 by 4 p.m., he said.

Libertyville's Condell Medical Center had to temporarily switch to a bypass electricity system because of the power outage, authorities said.

The main Cook Memorial Public Library in downtown Libertyville lost power, too, but that didn't stop patrons from coming in. People actually flocked to the facility because power was out in their homes, receptionist Nancy McGuire said.

With their scanners and computers inoperable, employees checked out books by hand. Workers also put warning signs on the bathroom doors and elevator to prevent problems, McGuire said.

The weather hampered local road travel, too. Route 137 in Libertyville was shut down between I-294 and Route 45 because of fallen trees on the roadway, police said.

Route 137 wasn't the only road affected by the weather.

"There are branches all over Milwaukee Avenue," said Joe Chekouras, a spokesman for the Lake County Board, who witnessed the damage during a drive from his office in Waukegan to a meeting in Libertyville. "If not big branches, there are leaves and little branches covering the road."

Neighboring Mundelein wasn't hit as badly, Deputy Fire Chief Craig Adams said. He reported some downed trees and wires, but no serious damage.

Conditions were worse in Round Lake Park, where power lines and trees snapped throughout town.

A large tree fell onto Karen Russell's house at 207 Brierhill Drive. It damaged the roof and porch, and broke windows.

"When I looked outside, my entire front porch was torn up," she said.

The tree caused minor damage to Russell's van, too.

A house in the Grayslake area was similarly damaged Friday. A large tree on the 33000 block of Lakeshore Drive snapped in half and crashed into the roof of the house, Grayslake Fire Protection District Capt. John Christian said.

No one was home at the time. The house likely isn't livable because of the damage, he said.

The department was flooded with calls about fire alarms and downed wires during the storm, Christian said, but no serious injuries were reported.

Incredibly, other Lake County towns were virtually spared by the storm.

"We had a little wind, but it didn't generate one call," said Lincolnshire-Riverwoods Fire Protection District Assistant Chief Bill McCormick.