Thousands of Chicago-area residents were without power Tuesday morning after a severe weather outbreak with destructive thunderstorms and “dozens of circulations” pounded the region Monday night.
In all, the Chicago area, which was under a “moderate” risk of severe weather — a level that ranks four of five on the Storm Prediction’s Severe Weather Scale — saw as many as 15 tornado warnings Monday evening, from the suburbs to the city. NBC 5 Meteorologist Alicia Roman noted the widespread warnings and moderate risk was “rare” for July.
“Pretty much every single county had a tornado warning,” Roman said.
MORE: 1 killed after tree falls on house as severe storms tear through Chicago area
According to Roman, the National Weather Service is set to survey more than 20 parts of the Chicago area where damage and possible circulations took place, though the effort could take days.
“There’s going to be a lot of confirmation of tornadoes,” Roman said. “We have to wait for the official confirmation from NWS.”
And while Tuesday in the Chicago area was set to be calmer and dry, the aftermath from Monday’s storm remained, Roman said.
As of 9 a.m., over 100,000 ComEd customers remained without power, the utility company’s outage map showed. The majority of those outages were in Cook County, where more than 90,000 outages were reported. Will County also saw a high number of outages, at more than 45,000.
According to a message posted to ComEd’s website, it could take days before power is restored.
“We know some of you are without power and we appreciate your patience as crews work to restore outages,” the message read. “Based on the history of similar storms of this size across the ComEd service area, we expect 80% of outages to be restored by Wednesday, 7/17/24, at 3 p.m., and the remaining customers restored by Friday, 7/19, at 6 p.m.”
In Northwest Indiana, approximately 99,000 customers are without power, with the greatest impacts across Chesterton Crown Point, East Chicago, Gary Goshen, Griffith, Hammond, La Porte, Portage and Valparaiso.
“Severe storms overnight brought extremely high winds, rain and tornadic activity across the region, causing elevated electric power outages in our service area,” a message on the utility’s website said. “Damage includes downed wires and tree limbs and broken poles.”
“All available NIPSCO crews are working to assess the damage, make the necessary repairs and restore power as safely and quickly as possible,” the message went on to say.
An estimated time of when power would be restored was not provided.
Storm damage impact to commuters
The widespread storms also left dozens of uprooted trees and downed power lines in its path — including in Grant Park — leading to multiple traffic impacts.
On West Polk Street in Chicago, a giant uprooted tree on a sidewalk had crushed a parked car.
In Lake County, Indiana, a woman suffered fatal injuries after a tree fell on her house, the Lake County coroner said.
According to officials, I-55 near Channahon in Will County is expected to remain closed for “at least 12 hours” due to downed power lines.
Overall, storm damage was reported across the entire Chicago area, spanning from Shorewood in Will County to the North Shore of Chicago, along the lakefront.
According to Metra, riders Tuesday morning could expect delays due to storm impacts.
“It’s been years and years since we’ve seen something like this,” NBC 5 Storm Team Meteorologist Kevin Jeanes said late Monday.
Tuesday, river flood warnings and watches were in place across Illinois and Indiana, the NWS said.
The storms mark the second straight day of severe weather to hit the area, with rare tornado touchdowns reported in Chicago itself Sunday evening.
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