High winds gusting over 60 mph cause damage, power outages in Chicago area, Northwest Indiana
Wind gusts over 60 mph caused damage and power outages in the Chicago area on Monday. Winds also left nearly 50,000 families without power in northwest Indiana.
Severe storms caused a tree to fall on top of a home in the West Pullman neighborhood, crushing the roof and attic.
The homeowner, who is out of town, says he is nervous to find out what it will look like when he gets back. He said he called the city just last week to report the tree looking unstable, especially after the same tree had a large limb fall on his car six years ago and dented it.
He said the city would not remove it as long as there were leaves on it.
The high winds were caused by what's called a "wake low," or a drop in pressure behind a weakening thunderstorm complex. Thunderstorms have high and low pressure, and the atmosphere tries to balance itself out. The wake low tightens the wind and pressure gradient, which causes strong non-thunderstorm winds behind the actual complex of storms.
In Sandwich, Illinois, in DeKalb County, winds reached up to 72 mph just around 1:45 p.m.
In St. John, Indiana, businesses and homes were without power after a few power lines were knocked down by what appeared to be high winds.
"We just thought, let's go see if it's fixed yet, and it's not," said Michelle Leasor.
Leasor came out to see the damage the high winds did to knock over power poles, closing the road for hours. Already, NIPSCO crews were on scene to try to clear the mess.
"We received several texts from NIPSCO that stated at the power would be restored at 5:45 p.m., then another one came in at 9:45 p.m., and the last one that came in was 'undetermined, there are massive outages,'" Leasor said.
While Leasor is not sure when power will be restored, NIPSCO says they are working to open the road Monday night and restore power as quickly and safely as possible.
And just south in Cedar Lake, a worker was seen on top of Hanover Middle School after reports say the strong winds tore pieces off the roof.
Downstate in Champaign County, forceful winds and rain resulted in downed trees and limbs across neighborhoods.
The same story this afternoon in Chicago's north suburbs. Niles, Evanston, and Skokie homeowners were also met with debris in their yards.
As for Leasor, back in Indiana, she says they are already making plans in case power is not restored on Tuesday.
"We both work from home, so we don't know if we are going to be able to work tomorrow or if we are going to have to go to McDonald's and work," she said.
NIPSCO is reminding people in the meantime to avoid downed power lines in case there are live wires. They say their restoration process starts with the areas with the most customers.
ComEd customers are also reporting widespread outages with more than 6,900 affected as of 9:19 p.m.