Fallen Tree Destroys 2 Cars In Englewood
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A large tree was uprooted Monday night in the Englewood neighborhood, crushing two cars, and slightly injuring one person.
A city crew worked through the night to remove the 35- to 40-foot-long tree from across the middle of the 5700 block of South Princeton Avenue.
The tree crushed a red Nissan Sentra and a burgundy Buick Regal that had been parked on either side of the street when it came out of the ground by its roots.
Strong winds were blowing in Chicago much of Monday afternoon and evening, with gusts of 35 to 40 mph at times, but it was not immediately clear what caused the tree to fall.
Podcast
Virginia Jones, who lives on the street, said ComEd has been working to lay pipe for its new smart grid system.
"The roots, I think, got a little loosened up, because they've been doing work on the sidewalk with ComEd coming in, putting in a new grid, or something, but they helped it out a little bit by loosening up the dirt," she said.
Her husband, Alec Jones, said the tree had been leaning long before it toppled.
"It was leaning already any old way," he said. "It had been laying like that for years, and it seemed like they should have seen it when they was working on it."
Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said one person was taken to St. Bernard Hospital, with non-life-threatening injuries.
