Chicago cleans up after severe storms sweep through the city
CHICAGO (CBS) — Monday night's storm snapped a light pole and took down large branches in Grant Park, and plenty of other places all around town.
Crews are surveying the damage and cleaning up right now across the city.
For some residents, this is their second time getting hit by storms in two days. Uprooted trees and broken limbs litter streets and sidewalks, and some damage cars.
There's so much to clean up that Ald. Felix Cardona (31st) said his Northwest Side ward received hundreds of reports of storm damage in their office and is now urging patience.
"We have 2,500 streets that are blocked by trees. So we have to do those streets first. So we can so we can get first responders to wherever they have to go and, then once they are done with that, they go into the neighborhood, and they start picking up the tree branches and things like that," Cardona said.
In Chicago's Belmont Cragin neighborhood, a street was blocked by not one but two trees, and people who commuted through that area said the two separate storms this week caused the damage.
A cyclist said one tree fell Sunday night and the other on Monday. One resident, Victor Reyes, watched his car towed away after it was totaled by a fallen tree branch on Sunday night and said he heard the branches snap and come crashing on the ground.
"Chaos going on. The tree from across the street fell on top of it. Crushed it. Now, I have a total loss. Now I have to worry about buying a new truck," Reyes said.
Also in Belmont Cragin, fallen trees left Beatriz Rebollar stranded.
"I had a doctor's appointment, which I had to Uber there and back downtown," Rebollar said.
Both of her cars were left buried under large branches—denting some parts and breaking off others.
"I made a report last night; been making reports all day, just waiting for the city to come out," Rebollar said.
She said the only response she has received has been, "We'll send someone as soon as we can."
Calumet Heights residents feel "forgotten"
Meanwhile in the Calumet Heights neighborhood, viewers reached out by email with a subject line, "Forgotten." They said they feel forgotten after crews came by to cut off damaged power lines, but left without restoring power.
"No electricity, no cold water—and we're hot in there," said Sonja Pierce-Bell.
As of Tuesday night, it had been nearly 24 hours since Pierce-Bell could turn on the lights at her Calumet Heights home.
"I was half asleep, but I heard the sirens go off," she said.
The storms Monday night were so severe that a tree fell down in her back alley—tugging at the power lines. The top of a transformer was left dangling.
"All of a sudden, I heard a pow," said Pierce-Bell. "We started looking around, and then we found out we had no lights, no air conditioning."
Several of Pierce-Bell's neighbors were also left with the lights out.
"Electric people came out, cut them down so nobody would get electrocuted, did this, and left," Pierce-Bell said as she pointed to coils of power line propped against a chain-link fence.
Until help arrives, Pierce-Bell and other residents are left to weather the storm aftermath.
"I was around before air conditioning so I just deal with it the best way it is," said Pierce-Bell.
But Pierce-Bell is counting on her lucky number seven.
"I was born 7/17/question mark-7 at 7:07 a.m. to a woman who was her mother's seventh child," she said, declining to disclose her age.
That makes Wednesday her birthday, and she hopes the lights come back on before the clock strikes midnight.
ComEd said based similar storms the area has experienced, they estimate about 80% of their power outages will be restored by Wednesday afternoon—and the rest by Friday evening.