Cleanup underway with more storms forecasted
Debris from an overturned semi tractor trailer and a van are scattered across both lanes of Interstate 57 at Stuenkel Road in Will County, Illinois on Saturday evening. Police said one person was injured on Interstate 57, a 3-mile swath of which was close Mike Voss, The Kankakee Daily Journal
June 9, 2008
CHICAGO – Residents of Chicago’s southern suburbs spent Sunday cleaning up from a series of tornadoes that pelted the region this weekend, while bracing for another round of severe weather.
The National Weather Service said a sprawling storm system generated six separate tornadoes in Chicago’s southern suburbs on Saturday, tearing off the roofs from homes, knocking down power lines and overturning semitrailers. One tornado was reported in the northern suburbs. Several minor injuries were reported.
Powerful thunderstorms also swept across northern Illinois Sunday afternoon, causing more damage to areas already picking up from Saturday’s storms.
Saturday’s tornadoes and Sunday’s thunderstorms left about 42,000 ComEd customers without power in northern Illinois.
Utility spokeswoman Judy Rader said it could take days for crews to completely restore service, because of the severity of the damage. The storms downed power lines, fractured utility poles and damaged some of ComEd’s high-power transmission lines.
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“The damage to our system was very severe,” she said.
Tornadoes first formed Saturday in Livingston and Grundy counties about 4:30 p.m. before roaring northward toward Cook and Will counties.
Another large, slow-moving tornado touched down between Richton Park and University Park about 6:30 p.m. and moved northeast, swiping at homes in several other densely populated suburbs. Buildings in some parts of Richton Park sustained major structural damage, officials said.
Teams from the National Weather Service were spending Sunday surveying damage to determine the tornadoes’ intensity and path, Ratzer said.
While portions of northern Illinois were cleaning up from tornadoes, residents of the central and southern regions of the state were dealing with rising flood waters, after as much as five inches of rain fell Saturday.
“We have a lot of sections on the northeast side of towns where the roads are impassable,” said Tuscola City Administrator Drew Hole. “In fact, we have so many flooded areas around town that we ran out of barricades.”
