Weather officials confirm multiple tornadoes Wednesday in northeast Illinois, still surveying damage
CHICAGO — National Weather Service officials said Thursday multiple tornadoes were confirmed in northeast Illinois but they still had survey teams out exploring twister touchdowns.
Multiple tornadoes tracked across parts of northeast Illinois between 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, some in proximity to one another, spawned by rotating thunderstorms known as “supercells,” officials said.
“There were two in Elgin, and another in the Burr Ridge/Cicero area,” said meteorologist Zachary Yack.
Weather service officials also reported tornadoes in Huntley, Barrington, Long Grove, Oswego and Boulder Hill.
Officials said Thursday it will take a few days to confirm how many tornadoes touched down as officials were working to access the damage to determine the strength and number of twisters. Survey teams were assessing damage from Wednesday’s storms across southern McHenry, Lake, northern DuPage and parts of Cook counties, officials said.
The tornadoes formed from a squall line of thunderstorms in the atmosphere, creating supercells rotating, Yack said. Air gets pushed out ahead of the squall line creating supercells, he explained.
“We have been very busy with teams surveilling damage,” he said.
In the coming days, officials expect a gusty wind threat in portions of the area, but tornadoes were not expected to continue. Conditions were to be monitored for the next 24 hours, Yack said.
On Wednesday, the National Weather Service initially confirmed a tornado on the ground near O’Hare International Airport based on radar signatures that suggested a funnel. But by Thursday afternoon, the weather service rescinded the confirmation, saying survey crews were still analyzing damage in the area to confirm whether a tornado had indeed struck the area.
The severe weather briefly grounded all flights at O’Hare and Midway airports, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Damage in Elgin also was reported. In Kane County, officials confirmed a tornado in Elgin with a maximum intensity EF-1 and maximum wind speed of 100 mph. The track roughly started east of Route 47 and ended near the railroad tracks west of Villa Olivia Golf Course, officials said.
In Elgin, 20 homes in the Edgewater subdivision and 25 in the neighboring area were damaged, said Elgin Fire Department Deputy Chief Mike Rothecker.
At a meeting for Edgewater residents on Thursday afternoon with city officials, Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain said homeowners whose houses were left uninhabitable or need repairs will be able to use Elgin’s fast-track permitting system.
“You won’t have to wait for permits and inspections,” Kaptain said. “Let’s get things cleaned up as quickly as we can and get people back into their homes and back to their lives.”
Director of Community Development Marc Mylott said the city will also waive permit and inspection fees for tornado victims.
Earlier this week, residents were bracing for possible flooding in the area from heavy rains. Some western suburbs like the town of Cicero experienced flooding at homes and businesses, as well as other places in Chicago.
The powerful storm system eventually moved over Lake Michigan, and Thursday morning a beach hazard was called warning swimmers of high waves up to 6 feet and dangerous currents along the shoreline. The beach hazards expired around 10 a.m. Thursday.
In Burr Ridge, the public works department was busy conducting clean up operations to restore its southern community.
Cleanup operations focused on the hardest hit areas between County Line and Wolf roads from 71st to 79th streets. Limb and branch collections in the area were to continue into Friday, officials said.
A final brush pickup will be conducted Monday at 8 a.m. Officials ask residents to place all brush on the parkway parallel to the curb. Residents should stack branches neatly, keeping a 3-foot distance from trees and fire hydrants, officials asked.
In Indian Head Park, Robert Louis, a resident of Flagg Creek Condominiums, was helping to clear tree debris around his condo.
“We heard a lot of noise, my daughter walked over to her window and she just said, ‘Dad’ and I ran over,” he said. “It was literally a split second, all these trees were perfectly fine and then we heard a lot of noise and they were on the ground.”
Louis said the neighborhood faced losses, including a play area for kids and a rock climbing wall.
“People who have lived here for 20 years said they’ve never seen anything like this, I mean I’ve been here four years, I’ve never seen anything like this. I used to live in Burbank and we’ve never had this happen,” Louis said.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation Tuesday for several Illinois counties, including Cook County, because of recent weather events.
Business owners in the line of the tornadoes gathered Thursday to access the damage caused by the storms. Rajan Patel, son of the owner of Skyline Motel in McCook, said six people were at the motel at the time of the storm.
“None of the family were at the motel at the time of the storm,” said Patel, adding his family arrived at the scene about 6:30 p.m.
When they arrived, they saw the motel’s garage was destroyed, the power lines around the building were down with bushes torn up and half the roof of the motel was blown off, he said. The Patel family has owned and operated the motel for 30 years.
“We weren’t here when it actually hit. We’re just waiting to assess the damage now,” Patel said. “This is the first time anything like this has happened here.”
Officials said there was a chance of continued thunderstorms Friday and Saturday for portions of north-central and northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana.
Severe weather also rocked the Chicago area in 1995. The temperature hit 106 degrees and would hover between the high 90s and low triple digits for the next five days. On a single day — July 15 — the number of heat-related deaths reached its highest daily tally of 215; refrigerated trucks were summoned to handle the overflow of corpses.
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(Chicago Tribune’s Will Lee contributed.)
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