Rob Dzimek of North Aurora clears a large branch out of the yard of his parents’ Sugar Grove home following Monday’s storms that spawned 22 tornadoes in the Chicago area.
Sandy Bressner/Shaw Local News Network, July 16
National Weather Service tornado survey teams have wrapped up their work following Monday night’s derecho and confirmed 22 tornadoes touched in the Chicago area.
Meteorologists are still examining satellite images to check areas for damage that might have gone unnoticed, like farm fields or wooded areas.
Between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Monday, the Chicago region was struck by one EF-2 tornado, eight EF-1’s and 13 EF-0 twisters, according to the weather service’s most recent data.
The most recently confirmed were two EF-0 tornadoes that touched down in DuPage County. The first struck Glen Ellyn just south of Benjamin Franklin Elementary School and rolled northeast to Highland Avenue in Lombard, three miles away. That was followed by a tornado in Villa Park that covered less than a mile of ground. Both tornadoes caused mainly tree damage, according to reports.
Elsewhere in the suburbs, an EF-0 was confirmed from Sugar Grove to North Aurora. One EF-1 tornado was confirmed from Sugar Grove to Aurora and another EF-1 was confirmed from Yorkville to the southern end of Naperville.
One person, a woman in Northwest Indiana, was killed during the storm when a branch from a tree broke loose and smashed into her house, collapsing the roof.
In the aftermath, about 300,000 ComEd customers were left without electricity, but the power company is now reporting fewer than 5,000 customers, mainly in the South suburbs, remain without power. That area was hit with the strongest tornado of the night, an EF-2 that began in Channahon and traveled nearly 30 miles before ending near Matteson.