Overnight Storms Cause Snarl

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jun 2, 2010 2:20PM

Count us among the people woken up by those big overnight storms that rumbled through the area. Besides providing us with a vivid edition of Mother Nature's Fireworks show, the storms also caused a bit of havoc. Residual minor delays were still being felt this morning at the city's airports as some East Coast-bound flights at both O'Hare and Midway were facing delays in the 20-30 minute range. The storm also cut power to almost 19,000 ComEd customers both in the city and in the suburbs. Lightning is being blamed for several small fires that were reported overnight. And as of this morning, one traffic death was being blamed on the storm. The accident occurred on 47th Street near Halsted; police say a driver was speeding - as fast as 70 mph - in torrential rains when wet streets caused him to lose control of his car and crash into a telephone pole. The deluge prompted a flash flood watch for the area and the National Weather Service isn't ruling out even more storms later this afternoon and evening despite the break - and sunny skies - we have now.