Two waves of storms blew through the Chicago area Monday night, drenching the city and many suburbs.
The National Weather Service issued severe thunderstorm warnings for McHenry, Will, Lake and Cook Counties, and put out a tornado warning for the Waukegan area. No tornadoes were reported, however, and the storms passed over Lake Michigan by about 9 p.m.
An hour later, high winds and heavy rains again pelted the area, leading to reports of seriously flooded streets, officials said. National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Ratzer said that wind gusts of up to 65 m.p.h. were reported, as well as widespread hail, but that flooding was the biggest issue as up to 4 inches of rain fell in places.
“A lot of this came in a relatively short period of time too,” Ratzer said.
He added that Tuesday likely would bring more storms in the afternoon.
ComEd spokesman Jeff Burdick said that the day’s weather knocked out power to 320,000 Chicagoland customers. In Chicago, officials reported 262 damaged trees, 76 non-functioning traffic lights, 27 damaged light poles and 24 downed wires.
O’Hare and Midway airports reported flight delays of one to two hours with some flights canceled.
