An EF-2 tornado struck southwest suburbs and Midway area, NWS confirms

Reporting by Carol McGowan, Steve Metsch and Alexis Bocanegra

An EF-2 tornado struck Chicago’s southwest side and southwest suburbs on Thursday, June 11, the National Weather Service confirmed on Sunday. The tornado left widespread destruction — damaged buildings, snapped power poles, and toppled trees.

The tornado track stretched from Hickory Hills through Bridgeview to the Clearing community and Midway Airport, according to the Weather Service.

An EF-2 classification on the Enhanced Fujita Scale denotes a “strong” tornado capable of causing significant damage, reaching wind speeds of 111 to 135 mph.

The tornado and high winds battered Bridgeview, Justice, Stickney, Burbank, and southwest Chicago. As of June 14, the National Weather Service’s Chicago office confirmed 17 tornadoes across northern Illinois and northwest Indiana on Thursday.

“All of the above ratings are preliminary, and the assessments for several of these tornadoes are not yet complete,” the Weather Service stated Sunday. “Additional analysis of these tornadoes and other areas of potential tornado damage will be conducted in the coming days.”

The Weather Service will be assessing Bridgeview, Justice and the southwest side, according to officials.

No serious injuries were reported.

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Displaced residents, structural damage

In Bridgeview, one of the hardest-hit communities, the tornado tore apart the roof of an apartment building at 79th Street and Oketo Avenue around 8:10 p.m. Thursday, displacing residents.

Several other buildings on the block sustained damage. The roof of Bridgeview Elementary School at 7800 Thomas Ave. was also damaged. No injuries were reported.

“Bridgeview was hit very hard by the storms and that kind of recovery takes time,” said Bridgeview Mayor Steve Landek. “Sometimes you don’t know the extent of the damage until you start cleaning up the debris.

“Our Public Works crews have been out since Thursday night helping residents with fallen branches and downed trees. Workers have been busy helping residents clean up debris from damaged homes and buildings.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the residents who were impacted by the unprecedented storms that roared through our community and neighboring communities.”

Bridgeview Fire Chief Keith Grzadziel said firefighters were faced with extreme weather, dangerous scenes and a lack of assistance from neighboring departments due to the wide area affected and the volume of emergencies being reported.

“I am extremely proud of my firefighters as they performed tirelessly and professionally in situations where we would normally have five to eight times the amount of personnel operating at these incidents,” Grzadziel said. “They safely completed all of their assignments without hesitation or injury.”

Several Bridgeview streets were still without power Sunday.

The roof of a Stickney condo building was blown off Wednesday night, forcing 20 families into the street. Stickney Village Trustee Lea Torres was among those displaced.

By Friday, Torres was waiting for an all-clear from structural engineers before residents could return.

“All residents are safe and unharmed,” said Stickney Fire Chief Jeffrey Boyajian. “Tenants of the building are either with family or friends, or are staying in a hotel.”

Water damage to the lower floors compounded the problem.

“Because of the heavy rainfall, there is now water damage to the lower part of the building,” Boyajian said.

In Justice, Roberts Park and Roberts Road saw the worst of the damage, according to Justice Mayor Kris Wasowicz.

He said as of Monday, power had been restored for almost everyone in Justice and the streets are clear.

“I must give full credit to the Justice Public Works Department, Justice Police Department, Roberts Park Fire Department, and our administration on how the storm clean-up was handled. Public Works was immediately called in. They took equipment out right away and started moving trees and cleaning the streets,” Wasowicz said. “I went through the village after midnight Thursday into Friday, and our crews were working through the night. We were lucky that there were no fatalities and no major injuries.

“I must give credit to my people, for taking immediate control of the situation.”

Power restoration under way

ComEd reported more than 146,000 customers lost power across the Chicago area as of Friday morning. As of Sunday, power is restored to 140,000 customers.

Jeremy Smith, ComEd vice president of distribution operations, told CBS Chicago ComEd had 3,000 employees on the streets in the Chicago area fixing the damage.

“In a number of locations, we essentially had to rebuild parts of the electrical grid from the ground up. That includes replacing broken poles, rebuilding damaged sections of the system, and clearing extensive tree damage before power can be safely restored,” Smith said.

McCook faced a severe outage: the entire residential area lost power Friday afternoon. Mayor Terrance Carr said ComEd initially told him power might not return until Sunday.

A large tree fell on the main power line behind Carr’s restaurant, Steak ‘N Egger, on Joliet Road. Rather than wait, Carr hired a subcontractor to remove a tree from his own business property.

“We just actually had the tree removed in the last half hour. Originally, ComEd said (the power would be restored) Sunday at 6 p.m.,” Carr said, hoping the removal would speed repairs. “There are trees down on every block.”

Carr said the village had been hit hard twice in two days.

“We got clobbered pretty good around 4:05 p.m. (Wednesday),” he said. “It came through like a bat out of hell and knocked down a lot of trees.”

The village hall opened as a cooling station and phone-charging center, powered by a generator.

“We have a generator on all the street lights in town, too. We’re doing good. There’s no rain, no wind today. We don’t give up that easy,” Carr said.

Debris removal in progress

In Chicago’s 13th Ward, 11,900 customers lost power; in the 23rd Ward, 8,000 lost power.

Chicago’s 23rd Ward Superintendent George Molina worked overtime with Forestry Department crews Friday and Saturday to clear tree debris from southwest side streets. By late Friday, much of the debris had been removed and piled on side streets or in front of homes for weekend pickup by Streets and Sanitation crews.

“They’re moving as quickly as they can — loading trucks, clearing streets, and tackling one block at a time,” Alderman Silvana Tabares said Saturday via the ward Facebook page. “I know many of you have been waiting, and I appreciate your patience as they make their way through the entire ward. Please continue to be safe and give the crews space while they work.”

In Clearing, residents reported transformer fires and trees falling on houses. Chicago aldermen compiled information about power outages and flooding reports.

Neighboring communities offer aid

Countryside, which escaped major damage, sent a public works crew to help Bridgeview with cleanup. Mayor Sean McDermott said the village sustained only scattered power outages and tree damage.

“It sounds like they got hit really hard,” he said of Bridgeview.

The storm forced Countryside to cancel the opening night of its summer concert series Thursday. The show has been rescheduled for Aug. 13.