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. 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.
He said the city came out early Monday to haul away the broken limbs and cut back others that might do more damage. There's so much to clean up that 31st Ward Alderman Felix Cardona said they've received hundreds of reports of storm damage in their office and are 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 two separate storms 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.