1 Killed, 15 Injured In Destructive Winds, Thunderstorms (Photos)
By Emma G. Gallegos in News on Aug 3, 2015 3:30PM
One person was killed and many more injured during an intense storm that brought winds, lightning, hail, power outages and even a funnel cloud to Chicagoland yesterday.
Steven Nincic, 35, of Wood Dale was killed and fifteen others were injured at the Wood Dale's Prairie Fest when a tent was uprooted during a storm that brought wind and hail to the suburb just west of O'Hare, local police said in a statement. Three others were seriously or critically injured in the storm that hit around 2:40 p.m., and twelve others were hospitalized with minor injuries, ABC7 reported. A witness named Kendall told the TV station, "It started pouring down, super windy. Next thing you know the tent just picked up and flew. It was horrible. We ran out trying to help people. There were people with their heads split open."
This year's Lollapalooza was briefly shut down because of the storm, though fortunately no injuries were reported. Crowds at the music festival were evacuated from Grant Park around 2:30 p.m. and they were let back in an hour later. The music resumed at 4 p.m. on a reshuffled schedule, the Sun-Times reported. Lollapalooza management said 48,500 festival-goers and nearly 4,500 staff, artists and vendors left and returned to the fest. The festival also had to be shut down a half-hour early when the bad weather resumed in the evening.
The storm caused a sports dome in Rosemont to collapse, though no one was injured since pregame festivities hadn't started. Doug Meffley, a public address announcer for the Chicago Bandits professional softball team, described the scene to the Chicago Tribune, "The bubble was completely torn apart and the field was exposed and open and the dome itself was mangled and on the ground. One of the bullpens was bent out into the playing field."
Officials: Storms cause Rosemont dome to collapse http://t.co/iM8tvLoZCs pic.twitter.com/11xMEWJ4ML
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) August 2, 2015Funnel clouds were spotted in Grayslake, a Northern suburb, though they haven't been officially identified as a tornado. The storm blew through just before 10 p.m., and whether it was a tornado or not, it caused significant damage. Tree branches snapped and power lines were downed, and some roads were impassable because of the damage, the Tribune reported.
He's a very scary pic from outside North Chicago, looking toward Gurnee/Gages Lake/Grayslake. Again, well east of us. pic.twitter.com/OF0GwLXp2c
— Duncan da Husky (@DuncanDaHusky) August 3, 2015As of this morning, ComEd said 17,900 people were without power, which is down from the 95,000 people who lost power during the storm, WBEZ reports. The Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation says there were 730 reports of downed trees, as well.
Here are some photos of the wind damage from our Flickr pool taken in West Ridge:
And here's some of the damage at Columbia and Lakewood:
