Lake County was spared the brunt of Monday’s storm damage, as seven tornadoes touched down in the Chicago area, with none and no major damage reported locally.
Severe thunderstorms rolled through Lake County Monday night and early into Tuesday morning, flooding some roads and causing power outages, with the Waukegan area the hardest hit.
Alexander Carr, the spokesperson for the Lake County Division of Transportation, said in an email the heavy rains in the northeast portion of the county led to flooded roads, but conditions were improving Tuesday morning.
“Roads for the most part are looking good considering last night’s intense rainfall,” Carr said. “There will still be areas with some water on the pavement and there are a few signal outages.”
Carr said both Hawthorn Woods and Lake Forest requested help from the Lake County Emergency Management Agency. Lake Forest reported some minor flooding from debris on storm drains.
As roads flooded in Waukegan Monday night, David Motley, the city’s public relations director, said the Waukegan Fire Department extracted passengers trapped in at least six vehicles because of high water on flooded streets.
Motley said there were trees down in residential areas of Waukegan, including some falling on homes and in yards.
Though the situation was calmer Tuesday, Carr said Sunset Road in Waukegan was flooded between Northwestern Avenue and Delaney Road. Washington Street and Grand Avenue were flooded west of Highway 41, as well as the Delaney underpass under 41.
John Schoen, a spokesperson for Commonwealth Edison, said 513 customers were without power as of Tuesday morning in Lake County, with approximately 400 of them in the Waukegan area. The majority are expected to have their power restored by Thursday.
Systemwide, Schoen said approximately 430,000 ComEd customers in northern Illinois lost power. Of those, 210,000 were restored as of 8 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Throughout the Chicago area, seven tornadoes touched down, according to the National Weather Service. There was one at O’Hare International Airport, two at Midway Airport, as well as one in Sugar Grove, Oswego, Manhattan and Joliet.