Storms cause outages, ground flights
People are drying out this morning after heavy storms pounded northern Illinois overnight.
Meteorologists from the National Weather Service said about one-inch of rain has been recorded at O'Hare International Airport.
But, the worst damage came from lightning strikes and wind gusts topping out at 65 mph, said meteorologist Casey Sullivan early Friday.
He said spotters in Lake in the Hills recorded gusts that caused some trees to topple and roof damages. He added McHenry and Prairie Grove also sustained wind and lightning damage in the overnight storms.
ComEd officials say 3,500 homes and businesses in Illinois remain without power following the strong storms - down from 26,000 at the peak. Spokeswoman Kim Johnson says most of the outages -- about 70 percent -- are in the southern part of the company's service area, which includes Chicago's suburbs, Kankakee and Bourbonnais. She says crews are working to restore power.
The storms also caused a few headaches at Chicago's airports.
The Chicago Department of Aviation says more than 50 flights were canceled at O'Hare. Delays averaged 90 minutes for flights arriving at or departing from O'Hare.
Department spokesman Gregg Cunningham said Midway Airport doesn't have any cancellations. But flights in and out are delayed between 15 to 45 minutes.
The power outages are having some effect on traffic this morning as blinking stop lights are causing traffic to move slower.
But, people concerned about flooding in Lake County should relax, however. While the storm did make the Fox River in New Munster Wisc. rise about two inches overnight, it should not have any affect on current water levels located south of the Illinois/Wisconsin border.
Sullivan said the light rain is weakening and moving to the south and east, but another line of storms is moving in and should fall later this morning. This band of storms is weakening, though, and should move on quickly before drying out this afternoon.
The Associated Press contributed to this report