Girl, 13, critically injured after being struck by lightning near Garfield Park Conservatory

CHICAGO - A 13-year-old girl who had been visiting an outdoor garden with her family early Wednesday afternoon was struck by lightning in East Garfield Park on Chicago's West Side.

Around 1 p.m., the Chicago Fire Department said they received a call of a teenage girl being struck by lightning near the Garfield Park Conservatory, located at 300 N. Central Park Ave.

Paramedics had found the girl in "traumatic arrest" and performed live-saving measures before taking her to Stroger Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt. No other details were released.

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Daniel Jackson and his stepson Jordan Garrett were selling sorbet out of a cart outside the conservatory when the rains started rolling in. The downpour briefly stopped, they said, before they saw a flicker of lightning and heard "a big old boom."

At first they thought the lightning had struck a tree, but then realized someone may have been hit. 

"I didn’t know what it was at first," Garrett said. "We could see the light from over there. We thought it hit a tree and fell down, it was so loud."

Then they heard the screams.

"I was scared, because it was so close. It just happened right over that fence right there, we could see it happen, we could hear them yelling. It could have been anybody else, any of us out here too," said Garrett.

When an ambulance raced to the area, Garrett and Jackson knew someone was hurt.

"They came out with a stretcher, and there was a little girl, she was small," Jackson said.

Jackson said there were other children out playing, and "it could have happened to all the kids."

"I’m trying to figure out what caused it to hit her. It shook me up," he said.

Strong storms started developing in the west and northwest suburbs around 12:30 p.m. and moved into the Chicago area over the next three hours, according to the National Weather Service, prompting a severe thunderstorm watch.

Roughly 5,000 lighting strikes were recorded between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. from Lake County to Will County as the strongest part of the storm moved through the area, the weather service said, citing preliminary data.

About 40 million lighting strikes hit the ground in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adding that the odds of being struck by lightning are less than one in a million.

The dangerous storms caused damage in several parts of the city.

In Ravenswood, streets were littered with downed trees and branches.

It was a similar scene in Avondale, where three cars were totaled in one fell swoop at the corner of Pulaski Road and Barry Avenue.

Windshields are now shattered – as a massive tree rests across them.

"I’ve never seen anything like this," said Juan Diaz, who lives nearby. "I’d be devastated, especially the times we’re living in now, you pay just to stay afloat, let’s say you have to go somewhere in an emergency and you come out and see your car like this, totally destroyed, it’s heartbreaking to see."

By 9 p.m. Wednesday, neighbors were still waiting for tree removal crews to visit the intersection.

Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.