Storms, Flooding & Tornados

By Rachelle Bowden in News on May 24, 2004 11:45AM

Last week Chicagoist commented on the abundance of May showers that were predicted. Little did we know that we were in for a week or more of torrential lightening, thunder, hail and tornado-producing storms. On TV, all of the local stations have had a weather bug in the corner for days warning us of the danger of floods. The abundance of rain has caused many Illinois rivers to overflow. There has already been some flooding along the Des Plaines River so residents in the northern suburbs are sandbagging to get ready for even more. The River is expected to crest at record levels. Meanwhile, residents of several towns in our neighboring state, Iowa, are getting slammed with more storms as they start to clean up and rebuild after tornadoes went through on Friday and Saturday.

There were tornado watches and warnings for Chicagoland last night but luckily the area just got some bad storms with hail. Chicagoist hopes you've all gotten used to sleeping through the thunder, lightening and rain over the past week, because what's predicted all the way through Memorial Day weekend is more of the same.

CNN has some interesting special reports on tornadoes such as the Myths & Facts Gallery, a map of Tornado Alley, the 10 Deadliest Tornadoes Gallery and Twister Trivia.