Power outages in the Chicago area continued Wednesday morning after a severe weather system sparked deadly tornadoes in Iowa and downed trees, high winds and dust storms in Illinois on Tuesday.
While much of the Chicago area managed to avoid the severe weather outbreak, as of 5 a.m. Wednesday, more than 16,000 ComEd customers were without power in northern Illinois, according to ComEd’s outage map.
More than 4,000 of those outages occurred in Cook County, according to the outage map. Power outages affecting 2,000 people or more were also reported in Lake and DuPage counties, according to the map.
West of Rockford in Stephenson County, more than 3,000 ComEd customers were without power, according to the map.
In several suburbs, including Niles and Bartlett, downed power lines led to road closures, as well as delays and transportation problems on the CTA Yellow Line and Metra Milwaukee North Line.
In Elgin, NBC 5 reported that Lisa Chavarria reported downed trees and broken car windows from flying debris overnight.
“We continue to monitor severe storms with strong wind gusts in our area,” said a statement on ComEd’s website. “We will provide updated information as often as possible. Our crews are on the ground ready to make repairs and restore power if necessary.”
According to the NBC 5 Storm Team, Wednesday and Thursday are expected to remain slightly dry in the Chicago area, with storms and shows returning Friday morning and late afternoon and continuing through the evening.
Showers and storms were also forecast Sunday, NBC 5 meteorologist Alicia Roman said.
In Iowa, the severe weather outbreak was deadly in some areas, and National Weather Service crews were expected to survey at least three areas to assess damage and officially determine how many tornadoes touched down.
Tornado kills several in Iowa as power storms ravage Midwest
Several people were killed when a tornado ripped through Greenfield and left a wide swath of destroyed homes, crumpled cars and broken trees, while outside the small Iowa town, huge wind turbines were distorted and twisted on the ground by the howling winds.
After devastating the town of 2,000 on Tuesday, the storms moved east to hit parts of Illinois and Wisconsin, knocking out power to more than 130,000 customers in both states.
Greenfield Hospital was among the damaged buildings in the city, meaning at least a dozen injured people had to be evacuated to facilities elsewhere, according to Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla.
“Unfortunately, we can confirm that there have been deaths,” Dinkla said at a news conference Tuesday evening, without specifying how many. “We’re still counting right now.”
He added that he believed they had found everyone in the town, but that the search would continue if anyone was missing. The Adair County Health System said in a Facebook post Tuesday evening that it has set up a triage center at Greenfield High School and people needing medical care should go there.
The tornado destroyed much of Greenfield, located about 90 kilometers southwest of Des Moines, on a day marked by several tornadoes, giant hail and heavy rain in several states.
Officials announced a mandatory curfew for the city and said they would only allow residents into Greenfield until Wednesday morning. They also ordered media representatives to leave the city on Tuesday evening.
In the aftermath of the storm, piles of broken wood from houses, branches, car parts and other debris littered the lots where homes once stood. Some trees still standing have been stripped of their branches and leaves. Residents helped each other recover furniture and other personal belongings scattered in all directions.
Rogue Paxton said he took shelter in the basement of his home when the storm passed. He told WOI-TV he thought the house was lost, but his family was lucky.
“But not everyone is so happy, like my brother Cody, his house was just destroyed,” Paxton said. “Then you see all these people here helping each other. … Everything will be okay because we’re together, but it’s going to be really, really difficult. It’s a mess.”
Several tornadoes were reported across the state, and one also apparently destroyed several 250-foot wind turbines in southwest Iowa. Some turbines caught fire, sending plumes of smoke into the air. Wind farms are built to withstand tornadoes, hurricanes and other powerful winds.
Greenfield bills itself on its website as a “friendly wave as you walk” type of place with tree-lined streets – before the storm – and as “the perfect place to grow up.”
Mary Long, owner of Long’s Market in downtown Greenfield, said she weathered the storm at her business on the community’s historic square, which largely escaped damage. Long said there appeared to be widespread damage in the east and south sides of the city.
“I could hear this roar, like the proverbial freight train, and then it was done,” she said.
Camille Blair said the Greenfield Chamber of Commerce office where she works closed around 2 p.m. before the storm.
“I can see from my house that the tornado went in a straight line down the road,” she said of the tornado.
Gov. Kim Reynolds said she plans to visit Greenfield Wednesday morning.
“Just a few weeks ago, tornadoes struck several other Iowa communities, and it’s hard to believe it’s happening again,” she said in a statement. “Iowans are strong and resilient, and we will get through this together.”
Iowa had been bracing for severe weather after the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center gave most of the state a high chance of seeing severe thunderstorms with the potential for strong tornadoes. Storm and tornado warnings moved into Wisconsin Tuesday evening and night.
Earlier in the day, residents in west Omaha, Nebraska, woke up to blaring sirens and widespread power outages as torrential rain, strong winds and heavy hail battered the area. The flood flooded basements and submerged cars. KETV showed firefighters rescuing people from vehicles.
In Illinois, dust storms led authorities to close sections of two highways due to low visibility.
The storms follow days of extreme weather that ravaged much of the central part of the country. High winds, large hail and tornadoes swept through parts of Oklahoma and Kansas Sunday evening, damaging homes and injuring two in Oklahoma.
Another round of storms Monday night swept through Colorado and western Nebraska and saw the town of Yuma, Colorado, covered in hail the size of baseballs and golf balls , transforming the streets into rivers of water and ice.
In Texas, deadly storms hit the Houston area last week, killing at least eight people. Those storms on Thursday knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people for days, leaving many in the dark and without air conditioning in hot, humid weather. Hurricane-force winds reduced businesses and other structures to debris and broken glass in downtown skyscrapers.
Bob Oravec, chief forecaster for the National Weather Service, said the system is expected to move south Wednesday, bringing more severe weather to parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and southern Missouri .
NBC Chicago
