Powerful storms leave behind damage, knock out power in parts of Chicago area

EVANSTON, Ill. - It was a very unusual Monday for a neighborhood hard-hit by storms in the north part of Evanston.

For many residents just west of Ridge Avenue and just South of Central Street, the power was out for the better part of the day.

For a several-block radius, downed limbs were scattered in the streets, on sidewalks, and even on rooftops. Neighbors described a violent storm hitting just before noon.

"I was on a work call and I looked out the window and I was like, 'it kind of looks like there's a tornado outside right now,'" said Katherine Goudal. "A wire got ripped out of the transformer and caught on fire and we had to call the fire department to come and make sure it was safe."

"It was sudden bursts of wind and rain," added neighbor Kayla Cohen.

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No one was hurt, but the neighborhood was left a mess, and crews worked into the night to try to get power back on.

"The lights went off, then they came back on, and then there was a very strange flickering for a few minutes, then nothing," said Dana Wahrenbrock.

As the sun went down, some had to light their homes the old-fashioned way: with candles.

"We have a lot of candles and we're going to have our dinner and we'll use our flashlights, read our books, and have a lovely evening," said Cohen.

The damage wasn't confined to Evanston. In Arlington Heights, winds were powerful enough to take down substantial trees, and in Bradley a tree toppled on to a man's car, damaging the roof.

"It was just like a really sudden burst of wind, you could see it shaking the trees really badly and it reminded me of the times when they've turned on the tornado sirens," Goudal said.  

ComEd crews finally had power back on to most of the neighbors just after 8 p.m. – nearly eight hours after the first reported outage.