CALUMET CITY, Ill. (WLS) — The National Weather Service has verified that as many as 17 tornadoes struck parts of Illinois and Indiana last Thursday.
The confirmation follows yet another wave of weekend storms that caused additional property damage for residents across the Chicago area.
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So far, the NWS has assigned ratings to 17 tornadoes:
- Merrillville, Indiana: EF-2
- Hickory Hills, Illinois to near Midway Airport: EF-2
- Dwight, Illinois area: EF-1
- -EF-1 between Paxton and Loda
- Naperville, Illinois to Lisle, Illinois: EF-0
- Cedar Lake, Indiana: EF-0
- Schneider, Indiana to Hebron, Indiana area: EF-0
- Wateska, Illinois to near Rensselaer, Indiana: EF-0
- Wateska, Illinois to near Rensselaer, Indiana: EF-0
- -EF-0 from SW of Gibson City to near Elliott
Powerful storms that swept through the south and southwest suburbs caused extensive damage, left thousands without power and sent at least one woman to the hospital after a tree crashed into her home.
A 29-year-old woman remained hospitalized at Christ Hospital after a large maple tree fell onto the Calumet City home she shares with her mother in the city’s 6th Ward. Neighbors said emergency responders had to work to rescue her from the damaged house.
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“The paramedics had to use like a jaws of life to extract her from the home. But when the tree fell it also severed the gas line, so the gas was super loud. You could here it and you could smell it,” said Calumet City resident Brian Holiday.
Cleanup is far from over after Saturday’s powerful storms. In Calumet City, thousands are still without power, and for some neighbors, the wait could stretch on for days as crews work to clear massive trees and repair damaged power lines.
The tree toppled over one powerline means nearly whole street in Calumet City has been without power since the storms wrecked havoc on Saturday, and some said it could be days before getting their power back.
Ring video from a home on Greenbay Avenue shows heavy winds and rain pouring down before the storm really takes a hard hit.
“It literally ripped everything off back,” Edward Davis, who lives in Calumet City, said. “It’s decapitated by tree. Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Davis is one of the thousands of people still without power and countless hours of clean up left to go as a tree remains collapsed on his garage. He says he knows crews are working as quickly as they can.
“I saw yesterday, maybe about 10- 11 trucks actually come in through here,” Davis said. “I looked at some of the people I spoke to, like I told me, he said, I’m going on like 16 hours already.”
As electrical contractors access the damage here in calumet city. ComEd continued their hard work in Bridgeview and across the city of Chicago.
With 9,000 more customers losing power on top of the more than 13,000 that were in the dark from last week’s storms, the damage remains extensive.
“I heard something go boom and I thought it was thunder,” Calumet City resident Jacquelyne Stinson said.
It was instead a backyard tree that’s been uprooted, just missing Jacquelyne Stinson’s home.
“It pretty much covered this whole backyard when it was standing,” Stinson said.
With cars that look more like pancakes, neighbors and crews are busy this week cutting down trees and many are counting their blessings.
“That’s materialistic material, it can be replaced, it can be fixed. But you only have one life,” Davis said.
Davis said they have to wait for this tree to be cleared before crews can start working on the powerlines with the rest of the street. And they say it could be a couple more days.
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