National Weather Service Confirms Tornado Touched Down In Waukegan
CHICAGO (CBS)-- The National Weather Service has confirmed an EF1 tornado touched down in Waukegan Tuesday night.
They say it was an EF0 or EF1. They plan to confirm which later today.
— Tim McNicholas (@TimMcNicholas) September 4, 2019
A storm ripped through Waukegan Tuesday. A funnel cloud was spotted over the city near the Waukegan Airport around 7 p.m. and pictures surfaced of the, now confirmed, tornado.
Officials told CBS 2 the tornado was an EF1 and winds gusted more than 80 miles-per-hour.
Only one injury was reported, the storm caused plenty of damage. At least one car was flipped over, and the storm damaged several trees, power lines, and buildings.
"It was really really scary," Resident Marvelia Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez was inside her Waukegan home when she noticed debris flying through the neighborhood.
She went to find her daughter and then saw a tree topple over.
"For a moment, I thought it was an earthquake, the way the house shake," she said.
Luckily, Rodriguez was not hurt. Only one person was slightly injured after the wind flipped a car.
Crews worked throughout the day Wednesday, cleaning up the storm's aftermath.
"We're going to help them out and just remove this debris from them," Mayor Sam Cunningham said.
Cunningham said several businesses were also damaged, including an ACE Hardware.
The mayor said tornado sirens never sounded because the city's siren system relies on a tornado waning from The National Weather Service, which never came.
"A lot of times we really, really depend on the National Weather (Service) to give us some direction on that because you don't want to alarm individuals about something and it doesn't happen."
Eric Lenning of The National Weather Service told CBS 2 the storm progressed from a weak storm to a tornado within a couple of minutes.
"This was a very rapidly, very quickly developing tornado," he said.
Forecasters were watching closely, but did not have time to issue a warning.