Homeowners cleaning up after storms swept through Homewood, Illinois

Residents in Homewood, Illinois, were also rocked by the destructive storms on Monday. 

A scene similar to those in other neighborhoods, with trees atop cars and branches hanging from power lines, as residents work to get back to normalcy.

Outside of Cindy Keilman's home, public works crews chip away at a massive tree that fell on her home and in her yard.

"Just kept getting alerts on my phone and we get them periodically so it's not unusual, but there was something about this one and the way the air felt that was different," she said.

She rushed to get her dog and husband in the basement.

"It's brick block basement, you know. I could hear it and feel the crumbling. I could feel dust and particles hitting my back and I'm like, this is it, ya know. It was crazy," she said.

Keilman stepped outside and saw the aftermath, the first after being in the home for 35 years.

"We had a bad storm in Homewood a few years ago, they called it the Willow storm. Even the guy that works for Homewood said this Willow pales to compare with this," she said.

Mia Selsor has been working all hours of the night and into the morning, making multiple trips to clean up the damage and debris from Monday's strong storms.

Selsor and her family chipped away at a tree after it fell on her home. She was inside when strong storms rolled through Homewood.

"I was in the bathroom coloring my hair bright pink and we just heard a thud and the tree is on the house," she said.

She shared photos of the tree branch poking through their roof, while water trickled in.

"It was very scary. We don't normally ... I don't want to say we don't believe in tornadoes, but we normally don't think they're going to strike, so we kind of just brushed it off and then we heard the thud and we're like, oh, it's serious. We gotta get to the basement," she said.

Generators echoed on some streets, while the sound of chainsaws bellowed on others.

"Nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing like this before. This is bonkers," said resident Becki Calomino.

Calomino lives just a block from Selsor. She and her family were cleaning up tree branches on Tuesday. In front of her house, a massive tree uprooted.

"This is a little unsettling. This is ... and like literally like just 20 minutes ago we just found the other hole in our roof," she said.

Another inspection she couldn't pass was a broken window caused by shingles that came from another roof.

"The roof came from a house, five houses down. Ok, so the roof flew and then it hit my window. So it broke my window and busted up some of my siding, security lights and stuff like that and another window back there," she said.

Right off Halsted, philanthropist Early Walker says about 200 senior citizens at Freedom Apartments have been without power. He's calling on businesses to donate food and water.

The National Weather Service does have teams assessing the damage across the south suburbs to determine whether the damage was the result of a tornado or straight-line winds.