At least a dozen people were homeless and 11 others were nursing injuries Sunday, a day after storms tore off roofs and shattered windows at apartment buildings in the western suburbs.
The storms pounded the Covered Bridges Apartment Complex at North Avenue and Schmale Road with rain and strong wind about 9:50 p.m. Saturday, uprooting trees and stirring up debris, Carol Stream police said.
Six people injured by flying debris were taken to hospitals, and five others drove themselves to hospitals. None of the injuries appeared to be life threatening, police said.
Matthew Hargarten, spokesman for the American Red Cross, said Sunday that his agency was working with police and fire officials. The Red Cross had set up a housing shelter to help those displaced Saturday night, and it was providing food and medical aid.
Nine buildings with 68 apartments were declared uninhabitable, and 15 residents who had taken temporary shelter at the Outreach Community Center were receiving help from the American Red Cross and Carol Stream Police Social Services.
Sam Rotondo, 84, was in bed in his second-floor apartment when he heard “a terrific wind” that shattered his bedroom window.
“It’s a good thing my bed isn’t under my window, or I wouldn’t be talking to you,” Rotondo said Sunday morning in a phone interview.
Moments later, he said, the winds ripped a hole in the ceiling and rain poured in. Rotondo called his son and grandson and the three of them moved many of his belongings into the living room.
The scene outside the apartment building when he left about 1:30 a.m. was grim. Many trees had fallen and the ground was littered with broken branches. Some trees were uprooted.
Rotondo is staying with his son John in Bloomingdale but is unsure about the long term.
“That’s a big question mark,” he said.
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Wind blew a hole in a wall at the nearby Wheaton Christian Center Church in the 600 block of East North Avenue in Carol Stream, police said.
A broken gas pipe ignited but the fire was quickly extinguished by firefighters.
Carol Stream police said the National Weather Service has been called and it is reviewing data to determine if the damage was caused by a tornado.
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