Damaged buildings, fallen trees, inconvenience remain after Lake County tornado
Fallen trees, damaged buildings and a lot of bad memories were Monday's remnants of the overnight EF-1 tornado that chewed a nasty, narrow path across central Lake County.
Cleanup crews, insurance adjusters and emergency management officials worked in pleasant sunny conditions while assessing the problems and the size of the storm that blew up about 8:35 p.m. Sunday in Round Lake Park and raced east through Hainesville, Grayslake and Wildwood before disappearing by 8:52 p.m.
In between was plenty damage and inconvenience, but remarkably, no fatalities or injuries.
“There's intense damage along that path,” said C. Kent McKenzie, the Lake County Emergency Management director. “There are destroyed buildings and heavy damages on either side of the line.”
The storm capped off an afternoon of violent weather in the Chicago area, that included two homes damaged by lightning strikes in Hinsdale, the collapse of a plastic air-suspended softball dome in Rosemont and a death and several injuries at a Wood Dale festival when strong winds picked up a large tent and smashed it to the ground.
In Lake County, Grayslake Central High School and The Pizza Place restaurant in Round Lake Park were among the better known buildings that fell victim to the storm that meteorologists said packed winds of 90 to 100 mph, which would classify it as an EF-1 tornado on a scale of 0 to 5.
The high winds damaged part of Grayslake Central's roof and wiped out the visitor's dugout and tore down a large stretch of outfield fence on the baseball field.
Grayslake High School District 127 Superintendent Catherine Finger issued a letter to parents Monday stating she's confident the school will open for the first day of classes as scheduled Thursday, Aug. 13. She thanked the Grayslake fire and police departments for “ongoing heroic efforts throughout our community.”
At Central Park in downtown Grayslake several bleachers were flipped over and a skate ramp in the Central Park Skate Park was tossed about 100 yards north on Library Lane. Several chairs at the Grayslake Aquatic Center were slammed into an iron fence, and a large lifeguard stand was flipped over an 8-foot tall fence and landed on the other side.
“This was worse than the storm four years ago,” said Grayslake Fire Chief John Christian, who added several homes were damaged in the downtown area and many businesses along route 83 and 45 were hit hard. “Damage-wise, it is much worse than that time.”
Grayslake Police Chief Phil Perlini said in a statement the storm originated in Round Lake Park “without warning” and proceeded rapidly through Grayslake.
Investigators were able to conclude the damage was created by a tornado by assessing the characteristics of the wreckage left behind, meteorologist Stephen Rodriguez said Monday. The tornado traveled about 7.5 miles and had a maximum width of 300 yards, widest in Grayslake, according to the National Weather Service.
Sunday's tornado spawned from two small storms that converged and quickly began rotating, meteorologist Ricky Castro said.
“That all happened very quickly,” he said. “The storm started to rotate soon after they merged together into one larger storm, and we issued a tornado warning (at 8:45 p.m.)”
Meteorologists are still trying to piece together the timeline of when the tornado first touched down in comparison to the time the warning was issued, Castro said.
“The storm did intensify quickly, like that storm in the afternoon intensified,” he said. “We knew we were in an explosive environment.”
Sirens didn't sound in all communities, Lake County Emergency Management Agency Director Kent McKenzie said, and where they did go off, the siren came after the tornado had passed.
“I'm not aware of any community that sounded the sirens before (the tornado),” McKenzie said. “There were already reports of damage being received. Unfortunately, it takes some time to recognize any storm and what its possibilities are.”
Sunday night, former Round Lake Park Mayor Jean McCue was in her car in the parking lot of The Pizza Place restaurant on Route 134 that she has owned for 17 years when part of the building's roof was ripped off.
“I turned around to leave and, when I looked back, the roof was gone,” McCue said, adding there were six people inside the restaurant at the time.
There's also damage to the walls and windows, and insulation and other debris could be seen in nearby trees. Several trees were uprooted.
The restaurant was set to turn 40 in October, McCue said.
“We were out all night knocking on doors and checking on people,” Round Lake Park Police Chief George Filenko said. “I'm amazed no one got hurt.”
Twenty-eight people were inside Bake's Sports Themed Restaurant and Bar on Route 45 in Grayslake when the storm hit, owner Tony Karlatiras said.
Most people went to the basement before the roof was torn off the back of the building, he said.
“It was just like the movies,” said waitress Jessica Talles, who was inside the building. “But, the aftermath was even more shocking.”
The roof was dumped on the ground at the rear of the structure, but the roof of neighboring Edward Jones Investment company was blown across Route 45.
Residents woke up and stared in awe at the damage they discovered in neighborhoods.
Jackie Smalley said it was eerily silent in her house on Lake Avenue in downtown Grayslake at about 8:45 p.m. when she suddenly heard high winds and tree limbs cracking around her home.
“It sounded like a war zone outside,” she said. “I heard a slam when the tree hit the roof. Then it ended.”
Power lines were on the ground in her front yard in the morning and a tree limb laid across the front of her house.
Municipal and county damage assessment teams surveyed the area Monday and they plan to meet with storm damage surveyors from the National Weather Service.
ComEd officials said 54,000 customers were without power in the northern suburbs after the storm went through Sunday. As of 2 p.m. Monday, ComEd reported 2,801 customer without electricity, mostly along the storm path, but also in a few pockets including Mundelein and Long Grove. Power restoration in some areas could take several days because of extensive tree and wind damage in some areas, officials said.
McKenzie cautioned people without power to use generators safely.
“We've heard of people running them in a garage or in a crawl space, which can cause carbon monoxide poisoning,” he said.
Democratic state Sen. Melinda Bush of Grayslake said anyone having trouble getting the storm assistance they need should contact her district office at (847) 548-5631 or info@senatormelindabush.com.
Daily Herald staff writers Russell Lissau, Bob Susnjara and Sara Hooker contributed to this report.