OAN Staff Avril Elfi
Tuesday, July 16, 2024 11:40 AM
Destructive thunderstorms and “dozens of circulations” have hit the Chicago area, leaving thousands of residents without power.
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As many as 15 tornado warnings were issued Monday evening across the Chicago area, which is at “moderate” risk of severe weather, or a four out of five on the storm forecast severe weather scale. The warnings extended across the city and into the suburbs.
Multiple reports said the widespread alert and moderate risk was “unusual” for July.
“Tornado warnings were issued for nearly every county,” meteorologist Alicia Roman said.
The National Weather Service (NWS) plans to survey more than 20 locations in the Chicago area where damage or circulation may have occurred, but the work could take several days.
“We’re going to see a lot of tornado activity,” Roman said. “We’ll have to wait for official confirmation from the NWS.”
More than 100,000 ComEd customers were still without power as of 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to the power company’s outage map. More than 90,000 people were reported without power in Cook County, which accounts for the majority of the outages, and 45,000 in Will County.
A message posted on ComEd’s website said it could take several days for power to be restored.
“We understand that some customers may be without power and ask for your patience while our restoration crews work,” the message read. “Based on the history of previous storms of similar magnitude in ComEd’s service area, we expect 80% of power to be restored by 3:00 PM on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, with the remaining customers to have power restored by 6:00 PM on Friday, July 19.”
In Northwest Indiana, about 99,000 customers are without power, with the areas of Chesterton-Crown Point, East Chicago, Gary-Goshen, Griffith, Hammond, La Porte, Portage and Valparaiso most affected.
“Severe storms that continued overnight brought extremely strong winds, rain and tornadoes to the area, causing widespread power outages in our service area,” a message on the power company’s website said. “Damage included downed power lines, tree limbs and broken utility poles.”
“All NIPSCO crews are working hard to assess the damage, make necessary repairs, and restore power as safely and quickly as possible,” the message continued.
The widespread storm downed numerous power lines, uprooted trees and disrupted transportation.
A tree fell on a woman’s home in Lake County, Indiana, causing fatal injuries, according to the Lake County Coroner.
Interstate 55 near Channahon in Will County is expected to be closed for “at least 12 hours” due to downed power lines, officials said.
The NWS posted an update on X and said it would be assessing the damage today.
“Good morning! Our office has deployed six damage assessment teams today to assess the damage across northern Illinois and northwest Indiana. So far, there are 29 possible damage paths that we will be investigating today and over the next few days to determine the tornado path,” the post read.
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