Three days after a violent storm and multiple tornadoes hit much of the south and southwest suburbs, some communities are still without power and their homes are severely damaged.
As of 3 p.m. Thursday, about 10,000 people mostly within the Southland remained without electricity, which is about 2% of all those who lost power due to Monday night’s severe storms, Nicole Owens of ComEd said. ComEd expects all power to be restored by Friday evening.
“Our crews, they responded immediately,” Owens said. “We had them at the ready. They’ve been working 16 hours straight, they go home and sleep for about eight hours, and then they’re coming back.”
Owens said assistance has come from around the country to help. Downed trees from winds that reached up to 120 mph brought many power lines down, forcing ComEd to completely rebuild much of its electricity infrastructure in communities such as University Park, South Holland, Calumet City and Harvey.
According to National Weather Service meteorologist Brett Borchart, the Chicago area experienced 25 tornadoes over a 48-hour period, with other possible touchdowns still being investigated.
Owens said as cleanup efforts continue, people should avoid all down power lines, as they may still be energized.
“It may feel like it’s been slow restoration, and that’s really driven by all of the damage that we’ve had here, the trees down, towers down, it’s just been a significant devastation, probably unprecedented,” Owens said.
In a subdivision in Homewood Thursday, fallen power lines remained on the sidewalk and snapped branches, pieces of roofing, shattered windows and fences littered the street on Gladville Avenue and Willow Road.
While some homes experienced little damage, for Patricia Rushing, whose home is at the corner of Gladville, Monday’s storms left her with five broken windows, several leaks from damaged roofing, a car without a rear windshield and a large fallen tree in her backyard.
Rushing said her family was collecting supplies to take with them to the basement when a tree broke through the window. They immediately dropped their supplies and ran for the basement, but while running, her 9-year-old grandchild injured her leg.
Rushing said the worst part was comforting her grandchild, who she said was traumatized.
“As adults, you have to be strong for them,” Rushing said. “You don’t want to break down in front of them. But she kind of like went into shock. We had to cover her with blankets because she just was shaken and you know, why did this happen to us?”
Another neighbor surveying the damage Thursday, Michael Ambramczyk, said it was the first time crews came out to clear the debris and he still does not know when power will be restored to the neighborhood.
“It’s been real boring,” Ambramczyk said. “We went to my school today because there’s air conditioning.”
Humberto Cervantes, who works for Winkler Tree and Lawn Care, said they were hired by Homewood this morning to start clearing the debris. Cervantes said they will come back each day to help remove the fallen branches blocking most of Gladville and a portion of Willow Road.
Rushing said she is frustrated crews removed the portion of her fallen tree that was blocking the road, but won’t clear the rest of it in her backyard. She said she feels left on her own to clear the damage or hire crews.
“Trees stuck out in the street and they can’t move them and I guess it’s up to us to try, I mean it’s so unfortunate,” Rushing said. “I know it was the act of God, but it wasn’t our fault either.”
As people leave their homes in search of power outlets and internet connection while crews deal with the storm’s fallout, some organizations stepped up.
Early Walker, owner of the Jerk 48 location in Alsip and W&W Towing in Blue Island, has used his trucks Wednesday night to deliver free water to storm-ridden Markham, Robbins and Harvey.
“We’ve probably delivered about 20 skids of water to neighboring communities,” he said.
Walker also slashed prices at the Jerk 48 chain, 12307 S. Pulaski, offering full lunch and dinner meals for $4 and $8 for the rest of July.
“It’s tough, even from a business standpoint, because of course prices have just skyrocketed,” Walker said. “But we wanted to do something to be some type of a help to the community because the storm has just come out of nowhere, and it’s impacted a lot of people, so we want to do our part.”
Despite the storm’s damage, Ambramczyk said he is proud the community came together to offer assistance to neighbors.
“You don’t want this to happen, it’s unfortunate, but the fact that everybody kind of came together to get people through it, was fantastic,” Ambramczyk said.
