Arlene “Sugar” Al-Amin was working from home in Flossmoor Tuesday morning when massive thunderstorms with high winds rolled through.
“The noise went really, really bad. It’s like a freight train coming through. We ended up going in the basement,” Al-Amin said. “When we came out, it brought tears to my eyes. It was crazy.”
Al-Amin said her road, Bruce Avenue, was mostly clear a few hours after the storm, but said she and her neighbors suffered substantial damage in their backyards and behind their homes from fallen trees.
“Everything is down in the back of my house,” Al-Amin said. “Really, really, really bad. Everything is down. I have one maybe live wire back there.”
Residents throughout the south and southwest suburbs reported in person and on social media a swath of damage in areas that were hit just two weeks ago, by a verified F1 tornado, and where massive piles of tree debris still line many roadside parkways.
“I’m a little emotional, we’ve all had it, we’ve had it with these storms,” Flossmoor Mayor Michelle Nelson said in a video posted to Instagram. “But our spirits are strong, we will recover.”
Flossmoor resident Kevin Barrett said he was following the storm on the internet when he lost power.
“Everything turned green,” Barrett said. “Everything was just parallel to the ground.”
Barrett said he found the number of severe storms this summer alarming.
“That’s the third major sideways storm that has come through here,” Barrett said. “I feel like we’re in Nebraska. Tornado alley.”
Barrett lives on Burns Avenue. From where that road intersects with Wallace Drive, a trail of trees that had fallen or snapped in half was clearly visible Tuesday.
“We have damage, but nothing that’s huge,” Barrett said. “We were 300 yards away from getting a good wallop.”
Gail Hollinger, who lives on that corner, had a tall tree in her backyard fall through her roof into her attic. The tree falling moved enough earth that Hollinger’s shed is now levered several inches off the ground.
Hollinger, who is 89, said she has lived in that house for about four decades. She’d previously talked to her neighbor about the tree, she said.
“He said, ‘you oughta cut it,’” Hollinger said. “I said, if a tornado comes through, if it falls this way, it’ll hit my house, if it falls that way, it’ll hit right on the fence.”
A block east, where Wallace Drive intersects with Argyle Avenue, Gilbert Casillas was using a chainsaw to help cut fallen trees in an effort to clear roads.
“It got intense really fast,” Casillas said. “All of a sudden, stuff started hitting the windows, and you could hear it hitting windows all around the house.”
Visibility went down to about 2 feet, Casillas said
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“I’ve never been in a tornado, but it’s what I imagine a tornado would be like,” Casillas said. “There was wind happening from all directions at the same time.”
Casillas said one of his neighbors was trapped in her house Tuesday following the storm’s passage, with a fallen tree blocking the front door.
“Her whole front door is covered up. I was able to crawl under the tree and knock on the back door,” Casillas said. “They’re OK, thankfully.”
Lisa Wilson said she was working in Homewood when the high winds blew in.
“I got this pressure in my ears, like I was in an airplane,” Wilson said after returning to her home near Ada and Ann streets in Lansing. “And my legs were like weak, and I’m like, ‘I think I’ll go.’ Because during the last tornado, I literally sat in the front of the office, just watching.”
Joy Krygsheld, of Lansing, who was helping clear branches from Wilson’s front lawn, said previously they didn’t go downstairs for warnings. They do now.
Krygsheld said despite the Schultz Park neighborhood in Lansing being without power and with many trees uprooted, blocking roadways and damaging roofs and chimneys, she hadn’t heard of any injuries Tuesday afternoon.
Wilson and Krygsheld said they are shocked by the devastating back-to-back storms that have rocked the south suburbs and other Chicago area communities.
Having lived in the neighborhood for nearly 20 years, Patricia Martinez said she’s never seen anything quite like it.
“It’s stressful,” she said. “Everybody’s panicking, because we’re not used to this. This is not something that happens here.”
Natalia Williams, of Lansing, said the worst of the storm started and passed quickly, and her family was unable to make it to their basement before hearing debris slam against the windows and siding.
“A large branch hit the roof, so we’ve got a hole in the roof,” she said.
Williams said her daughter, who was sitting in her car, witnessed trees fall “one after another, like a domino effect.”
Mary Beth Uretz said she spent Tuesday morning crying in her Homewood basement, clutching her pets as the storm pounded.
“Psychologically, it’s a lot to deal with,” said Uretz. “I’ve never gone to bed at night and worried about my house falling over, until this summer.”
Uretz initially didn’t expect Tuesday’s storm to add to the damage in the south suburb, which has repeatedly been pummeled this summer. Forecasts called for little more than rain, then her phone lost service, and within minutes, powerful winds were sweeping through the neighborhood.
“None of our houses are flattened, but it doesn’t mean there’s not damage and it doesn’t mean we’re not thinking about this constantly,” said Uretz, who has lived in the neighborhood for nearly two decades.
Thousands of dollars’ worth of fallen trees litter her backyard, joining a fence that past storms destroyed. Downed wires in her neighbors’ backyards resembled “spaghetti,” she said.
Mike Bardou, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Tuesday it was too soon to tell whether there were tornadoes, but he said there were 80 to 100 mph straight-line winds covering entire communities.
“Not that one needs to outdo the other, but a lot of folks sometimes don’t put a lot of credence into the potential power that straight line damaging winds can bring,” he said, adding there may be more thunderstorms this week.
The operators of Dunning’s Gourmet and Deli in downtown Flossmoor said the cafe’s window was blown out and power lost, so they were offering for free the pre-made salads planned for the lunch crowd.
People lined up for food following the invitation from owner Maureen Mader.
“Right now in front of Dunning’s, we are cooking off some of the things that we know aren’t going to survive the power outage,” Mader said in a video posted to social media. “So if you’re out and about, come on down.”
Orland Park reported its public works crews were working on downed power lines, street lights, flooded roadways and downed trees. At 1 p.m. the village reported trees blocking roadways in eight locations.
The Orland Park police station was open as a primary cooling center offering air conditioning, device charging stations and dedicated power outlets for medical equipment.
Homewood public works crews closed the 183rd Street and Dixie Highway viaducts due to standing waters, and said immediately after the storm Halsted Street at Ridge Road was completely blocked, as well as the intersection of Willow Road and Dixie Highway.
The Forest Preserve District of Will County said damage had forced closure of several forest preserves and trails, including Goodenow Grove Nature Preserve in Crete Township, Messenger Woods Preserve in Homer Glen and Old Plank Road Trails closed from Washington Street to Gougar Road.
Illinois has already set a record for tornadoes in a year, with 220 confirmed through the end of July. Experts say this pace is not normal: Illinois experienced an average of 54 tornadoes annually between 1990 and 2020.
In 2023, Illinois recorded 121 tornadoes, followed by 142 in 2024 and 126 last year, according to federal data. Before this stretch, the state only had four years on record with over 100 tornadoes. The last time it saw triple-digit tallies was 2006.
Evgenia Anastasakos and Lila Hempel-Edgers from the baiduhai contributed to this story.
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