Daniel Ortiz heard a loud thud outside his West Town home as the storm tore through the Chicago area. Then he looked outside and saw a piece of his neighbor’s roof had crashed into his front gate.
Ortiz and his neighbors emerged from their homes after the storm passed to find a level of destruction that seemed unfathomable. In his 60 years of living in Chicago, Ortiz had never seen anything like it.
“We’ve had branches, some little twigs, whatever, but nothing like this. … It was fierce,” Ortiz told the Sun-Times on Tuesday as he worked to clean up debris around his home.
The intersection of Hoyne Avenue and Huron Street was blocked by downed trees in multiple directions. To Ortiz’s relief, no one was injured, but dozens of cars had windows shattered, and front yards were filled with fallen tree limbs.
Neighbors said it felt like a storm traveled straight through Huron Street, while blocks north and south were untouched.
At least 11 tornadoes touched down in the Chicago area Monday, including an EF-1 tornado on the city’s Near West Side, as the region was battered by storms for a second straight night, the National Weather Service said.
The weather service also confirmed tornadoes near Channahon, Oswego, Yorkville and Bridgeview and in Crown Point, Indiana.
So far, 17 tornadoes have been confirmed after two days of severe storms. The total will likely grow as the weather service continues assessing storm damage.
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About 58,000 ComEd customers were still without power Wednesday afternoon, and the utility company said some residents might not be back online until Friday. At the peak of the outages, more than 220,000 customers were without power.
Alondra Gonzalez’s West Lawn home wasn’t impacted by the storm, but she said many of her family members, including her 1-month-old niece, came over Tuesday morning seeking shelter from the heat.
“They live in Chicago Lawn, and their power went out last night,” Gonzalez said. “When they woke up it was really humid and hot. They needed to get the baby out of there, so they’ve been hanging out here until it comes back on.”
Gonzalez said she’s had issues with flooding from past storms, but she prepared this time by taking steps to block rain from getting inside her home.
Few storm-related injuries were reported, but a woman in Northwest Indiana died when a tree fell on her Cedar Lake home. Laura Nagel, 44, was pronounced dead and identified by her family after storms ripped through the area Monday night, the Lake County, Indiana, coroner’s office said.
Resident Daniel Ortiz helps clear downed trees in the 2000 block of West Huron Street in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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Passers-by walk near downed trees in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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A Porsche car, damaged by a downed tree, is seen near the intersection of West Huron and North Leavitt Street in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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Roger O’Hearnahan helps clear a tree from a road near West Huron and North Leavitt Street in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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A car with a broken windshield is seen in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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Todd West, whose car was damaged by a downed tree on the street, speaks to a reporter in the 2000 block of West Huron Street in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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Passers-by take a selfie with a downed tree that blocks the road near the intersection of West Huron Street and North Hoyne Avenue in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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Mel Becker-Solomon sweeps debris near the intersection of West Huron and North Leavitt Street in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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A tree is uprooted in Woodlawn Tuesday. | Peyton Reich/Sun-Times
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Resident Daniel Ortiz listens to his neighbors speak about the storm in the 2000 block of West Huron Street in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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Michael Anderson removes a tree branch that was hanging on top of his work truck near West Huron and North Hoyne Avenue in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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Downed trees block a road, making it impassable for residents in Woodlawn Tuesday.
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A downed tree in the backyard of a Woodlawn residence blocks a sidewalk Tuesday.
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Ezra Solomon helps clear the road of debris near the intersection of West Huron and North Leavitt Street in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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A car, damaged by a downed tree, is seen near the intersection of West Huron and North Leavitt Street in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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Resident Daniel Ortiz helps clear downed trees in the 2000 block of West Huron Street in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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Resident Daniel Ortiz surveys the area in the 2000 block of West Huron Street in West Town Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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The weather service determined the Chicago area had experienced a derecho, a storm system that continues for at least 250 miles and is characterized by heavy winds. Winds were consistently recorded between 50 mph and 70 mph. A 75-mph gust was recorded near O’Hare Airport, meteorologist Zachary Yack said.
Derechos are “somewhat rare,” Yack said. “I know we’ve had a couple of them this year in other parts of the country. We’ve had them in our area in the past.”
A derecho in August 2020 spawned at least seven tornadoes across northern Illinois and left about 850,000 customers without power. One of the tornadoes touched down in Rogers Park.
The Chicago Fire Department confirmed only one injury related to the storms. A woman in her mid-40s was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in serious condition with a head injury after a tree fell on her car in the 1700 block of North Austin Avenue, fire department spokesperson Larry Langford said.
Near Channahon, several vehicles were tangled in high-tension electric wires that fell onto Interstate 55 near Arsenal Road, Illinois State Police said. Two people were taken to nearby hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. ComEd and state police representatives said the highway could reopen by Thursday morning.
Severe storms Sunday night also led to two tornadoes, one near Midway Airport and another in Englewood, the weather service said. At Midway, 80-mph winds moved a plane on the tarmac. An empty, parked Southwest Airlines jet “made contact with a jet bridge,” according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Todd West walked out of his home on Huron Monday night to find two of his family’s cars crushed by trees.
“This feels like it was a tornado because of the way the tree broke up at the top,” West said. “It’s a little weird the way it snapped.”
Mel Becker-Solomon and her husband, Jeremy, said their home just a block south was spared any damage, but they walked over to Huron to help with cleanup Tuesday.
The couple and their 8-year-old son, Ezra, began breaking down branches blocking intersections and sweeping up debris in the street.
“We’re just cleaning up as well as we can,” Jeremy Solomon said.
Across the street, Juan Martinez was taking in the damage to his recently paid-off 1996 Volvo sedan. A large branch smashed through both the side and back windows and crushed the top of his car.
Martinez had called his insurance company Tuesday but was not particularly optimistic.
“Liability insurance, some comprehensive, 1996 Volvo, no car payment, I was like, ‘Great,’ and then this,” Martinez said. “I’m not sure how much I’ll get … especially given the age of the vehicle.”
