In the past two days, at least eight tornadoes have been confirmed by the National Weather Service to have touched down in the Midwest, with at least one of them being an EF-1 tornado that made landfall in downtown Chicago.
Following back-to-back powerful storms that hit Chicago and the surrounding area overnight on Sunday and Monday, tornado sirens could be heard throughout the city.
The region received at least 16 tornado warnings from the NWS on Monday night, the most in a single day since April 2004. In order to survey the reported tornado locations and determine at least 29 probable pathways, the organization thinks that it will take several days.
As the storms moved through the vicinity of O’Hare and Midway airports, hundreds of travelers took cover indoors. The Federal Aviation Administration reports that after emergency warnings warning of tornadoes, the air traffic control tower was evacuated, leaving some people, including Justin Smolenski, left on their planes either on the runway or at their gates.
“It felt like turbulence on the ground,” Smolenski stated. “I guess planes are built better than I thought, because I was just waiting for the thing to just rip apart on the runway. My kids were terrified.”
We are in the process of wrapping up the damage surveys from the SUNDAY evening storms. Here are the track maps and details of the 6 tornadoes that we have confirmed from that event. #ilwx pic.twitter.com/KvEPV4o88Z
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) July 16, 2024
ComEd, the utility provider, reports that strong wind gusts reaching up to 70 mph destroyed trees, overturned semi vehicles, and brought down industrial power lines in Illinois.
A section of the I-55 freeway had to close because some of the lines were hung over it, trapping vehicles and trucks in the space between them.
A 44-year-old lady was killed at Cedar Lake, Indiana, when a tree fell on her house.
Over 400,000 people were initially impacted by power disruptions, and nearly 150,000 were still without power on Tuesday night. ComEd stated that while it intends to restore most of the power by Wednesday, it may take until Friday for some residents.
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In the three years that he has resided in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, Brett Schelane claims never to have lost power.
However, he is appreciative that their home just suffered a power outage as a result of witnessing a neighbor’s automobile being almost completely wrecked by a falling tree during Sunday night’s storm and spending the previous two nights hiding in the basement with his children.
“We’ve had bad thunderstorms, but nothing like this. I just happened to look at my phone and saw it said tornado warning so we got down to the basement really quick,” Schelane stated. “We heard loud wind and the sirens going off, so we just waited it out both nights in the basement.”
As the region’s cleanup efforts persisted On Tuesday, the overflowing precipitation caused a dam in Nashville, Illinois, to collapse. About 300 people who were living in the flood zone close to the municipal reservoir were forced to leave right away by local authorities.
