Severe storms leave damage, postpone football games

A line of strong thunderstorms rumbled through the suburbs Friday night, leaving behind some damage and postponing several high school football games.

The advancing line of thunderstorms began passing through the North suburbs after 5 p.m., producing heavy downpours, wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour and one-inch hail.

Rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches were reported, according to the National Weather Service.

A number of trees and power lines were reported to be down throughout the suburbs, particularly in Lake County.

At one point, ComEd reported about 74,000 customers were without power in the Chicago area — 20,100 of which were in the North suburbs.

The National Weather Service on Friday afternoon issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the region that expired at 9 p.m. Earlier severe thunderstorm warnings and an urban and small stream flood advisory had also been issued for some areas.

The severe weather followed record-setting heat that settled across the region Friday. The official high temperature at O’Hare International Airport was 96 degrees — tying the official high recorded in 1953.

A number of varsity and sophomore level football games were canceled throughout the suburbs and rescheduled for today. All Fox Valley-area football games were postponed. Other varsity games were able to get under way after a delayed start Friday night.

Under IHSA rules, if lightning is seen, a game must be halted for 30 minutes. If it’s after 9 p.m., a game cannot start or continue.

A power outage at Lakes Community High School in Lake Villa postponed both the junior varsity and varsity football games between Lakes and Grayslake North at Polley Field. Lights went out as the storm was passing through about 5 p.m.

Though ComEd crews were working to restore power, it was unknown when the lights would be back on, resulting in the postponement, according to an announcement on the Lakes website.

The games were rescheduled for tonight.

Grayslake Fire Department Battalion Chief Jon Cokefair said his department responded to about 20 calls for reports of trees and power lines down.

“Trees are coming down in yards. There’s a lot of power outages. Power is going to be up and down all night,” Cokefair said.

In Lincolnshire, emergency crews responded to a motorist whose car was struck by a tree about 6 p.m. near the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue and Deerfield Road. The back window of the car was shattered, and the driver escaped without injuries, fire department officials said.

Metra announced train delays and cancellations on the Union Pacific North, Northwest and West lines because of the weather. Delays ranged from 80 to 150 minutes, according to Metra’s website.

The weather conditions also delayed flights in and out of O’Hare. At one time, arriving flights were delayed an average of 2 hours and 57 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.