At Least Four Tornadoes Confirmed in Chicago Metro
A tornado warning was issued for all of Cook County, which includes the Chicago metro, about 7:20 p.m. ET. The National Weather Service declared it a “particularly dangerous situation,” or PDS, a special status when a tornado is very likely or known to be producing damage.
The NWS confirmed on Thursday that at least four tornadoes tracked across the greater Chicago area. Two were in the Elgin area, one was between the towns of Burr Ridge and Stickney and the fourth was near Oswego.
There were no reports of injuries.
Roofs were damaged and windows blown out of cars in the La Grange and Countryside areas, also in Cook County, WMAQ-TV reported.
Photos shared on social media by WGN-TV and area storm chasers showed what appeared to be damage to power lines as well as some debris in McCook, on the southwest side of Chicago. One also showed a collapsed building.
Ty Carr lives at the Skyline Motel in McCook. He said the twister tore the motel’s roof off.
“Just chaos,” Carr said, according to the Associated Press. “It was really fast, and the noises and the crackling and the wind — it was just something I’ve never seen or been through, you know?”
Rajan Patel, whose family owns the motel, said, “The entire place is ruined. I don’t know, man. I don’t know how to recover anything. I don’t know.”
Students at the University of Illinois Chicago were told to take shelter. Photos and video posted to social media showed the storm over the city’s skyline.
In the village of Indian Head Park, southwest of Chicago, a roof was ripped off one building and the back wall torn away from a townhouse, according to ABC 7 Chicago.
“The sound started real loud and the wind was really bad and you could see everything was falling over,” Indian Head Park resident Gary Malone told the station. “It’s the worst I’ve ever seen and I’ve been here about 40 years.
Two other tornadoes were spotted in the western suburbs of Elgin and Barrington, Illinois.
Several homes were damaged in Elgin.
“I saw a huge windstorm coming through, looked out the window and trees were blowing sideways. All I saw was a huge tornado come straight down here and debris started flying all over the place,” Charles Petersen, an Elgin resident, told CBS News Chicago.
“The severe weather is a result of an atmospheric disturbance moving through the Great Lakes amid summertime heat and humidity,” weather.com digital meteorologist Jonathan Belles said. “The system is likely to produce more rainfall for flood-battered New England on Thursday.”
The FAA issued a ground stop and passengers took shelter in tunnels at O’Hare International Airport, where more than 1,000 flights were canceled or delayed due to storms during the day. Amtrak also suspended service due to the evening storms.
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