Powerful Storm Leaves Behind Downed Trees, Power Lines, Damage

LAKE COUNTY, IL – After powerful storms with damaging 65 mph winds blew through Lake County and throughout northern Illinois on Monday afternoon, area residents and local officials were left to deal with downed trees and power outages along with limited structural damage, police said.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Department handled about 100 weather-related calls on Monday from the storm, which knocked out power for about 15,000 Commonwealth Edison customers. Most of the calls came from residents in the northern and western portions of the county, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Chris Covelli wrote in an email Monday night.

Covelli said that many of the calls centered around with fallen trees that blocked area roads while many live powerlines fell during the storm. Covelli said that there was one minor injury caused in unincorporated Lake Villa where a tree fell into a home, which led to the homeowner to sustain minor injuries. Covelli said that downed trees also did structural damage to one home and destroyed another vehicle.

In Grayslake, police officials told the Lake County News-Sun that residents experienced some flooding and trees resting on power lines, but that there were none on the ground.

Across the state, Com Ed reported dealing with 5,000 power outages that caused some 563,000 customers to lose powers due to the storms, which included multiple tornado warnings across the greater Chicago area throughout the afternoon.