Chicago land under high warning

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A house has reportedly been damaged in Peotone by a possible tornado.


The home was damaged on Will Center Road just south of Beecher Rd. There were reports of entrapment in the home and debris in the road on that block.

Wires were also reported downed in Peotone. In East Chicago, Ind., electrical wires were also down along Chicago east of Indianapolis Blvd.

The National Weather Service confirmed they have received a report of a possible tornado touchdown in Peotone and are hearing about another touchdown near Chebanse, which is on the Iroquois-Kankakee County border.

In River Forest, Ill., trees were down on Chicago between First and Thacher. The National Weather Service says a wind gust that topped 50 miles per hour was reported early Tuesday in the western Chicago suburb of Lombard.

ComEd spokeswoman Krissy Posey says crews are working to restore power to about 59,000 customers in northern Illinois. Posey says that includes about 27,700 in Chicago's western suburbs, about 7,200 ComEd customers in Chicago, 13,100 in ComEd's north region and 10,600 in the south region.

Ameren Illinois is reporting more than 16,000 customers without power in central, east-central and southern Illinois.

Ameren Illinois spokesman Leigh Morris says most of those outages were caused by downed trees.

But Morris says about 10 utility poles are down in northeastern Illinois, and hundreds were left in the dark in Effingham when winds slammed a farm shed into a power pole. Morris says repair crews are having to peel that shed off the pole to repair damage to the lines there.

High winds have forced authorities to stop flights at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

A spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation says officials have issued a temporary "ground stop" at O'Hare, meaning no flights are departing.

Aviation Department spokeswoman Karen Pride says more than 125 flights have been canceled at O'Hare. No cancelations are being reported at Midway International Airport on Chicago's South Side.


Some experts say this may be one of the most powerful storms here in more than 70 years. ComEd's emergency operations center was up and running Tuesday, and dozens of additional crews were ready to respond to downed power lines.

"It is common sense, right? We could have wind pushing on trees, broken limbs. You're going to have some power outages out there," said ComEd's Mike Guerra.

Chicago officials warned building owners, construction site operators and city residents to bring things inside and to make sure items outside are properly secured.

"We have notified everyone in the city of Chicago right now, particularly with cranes or anything out there that may pose a hazard, so the idea behind this is to get the word out there," said Jose Santiago, Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communication.

During a windstorm in 2002, window-washing equipment fell from the 43rd floor of the John Hancock Building during 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts, crushing cars below and killing three people.

High waves are also expected on Lake Michigan.