Science & Nature
3 Tornadoes Confirmed, 99 MPH Wind Gust Recorded, Hundreds of Thousands Without Power After Tuesday Storms
Downed trees and power lines blocked main roads in Crete, where thousands remained without power on Wednesday. (Village of Crete)
Hundreds of thousands of people in northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana remained without power Wednesday as cleanup continued following damaging storms that spawned at least three tornadoes on Tuesday.
ComEd is still working to restore power to more than 143,000 customers, down from a peak of 370,000 people. The majority of outages are in Cook and Will counties, with Chicago’s southwest suburbs particularly hard hit. Full restoration is expected by 11 p.m. Saturday, ComEd officials said.
NIPSCO, which serves northern Indiana, declared Tuesday’s outages the largest in the utility’s history, with damage to poles, power lines and substations across nearly its entire service territory. Approximately 275,000 of NIPSCO’s 500,000 electric customers were affected as of Wednesday morning, the company said.
The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center preliminarily confirmed Tuesday’s widespread storms as a derecho — a long-lived wind storm extending for more than 240 miles with gusts of at least 58 miles per hour along its length.
Tuesday’s storm traveled roughly 330 miles, from east Iowa into northern Indiana. A 99-mile-per-hour wind gust was recorded at the Gary Airport, and gusts of 97 and 96 miles per hour were measured in Illinois in Sugar Grove and Shorewood, respectively.
Weather service survey crews continue to assess damage and as of Wednesday morning had confirmed at least three tornadoes touched down Tuesday in the greater Chicago region. All of them were consistent with EF-1 damage, the weather service said, with winds between 86 and 110 miles per hour.
One tornado struck northeast Will County, one in eastern Will County and a third in southern Cook County along its border with Will. The latter two crossed over into Lake County, Indiana. Weather permitting, surveys will continue Wednesday to determine whether additional tornadoes can be confirmed and to detail the paths of the twisters.
With rain in the forecast again on Wednesday, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago issued an overflow action day alert, encouraging people to reduce water use during and after storms in order to create more capacity in the region’s sewer system.
Contact Patty Wetli: [email protected]
