Oak Park Newspaper

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April 24, 2007

Trees destroyed, Cars flattened, Sewers tested, and Power stopped
for some.
© Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc. photo

Branches, Trees, Floods, Power Outages, and Lots of Rain
by Ed Vincent

Many streets look like an ecological war zone and the call of
the High Schools tornado warning system sent children and parents in the elementary schools inside away from windows for
safety and high school students too. The High school was in
session, while some of the elementary schools still had summer
programs and kids and parents in the buildings.

Skies began to darken around 3:15 pm, as the 60 mph front
approached our area from the west. The rain and sirens soon
followed as within a quarter of an hour monsoon like torrents
of rain pelted the already saturated soil.

I went to get my wife from her job, so she would not be riding
her bicycle home. In the few minutes time that I got out of my
garage seven or more trees were downed on my way to get her.
The soil being soaked gave little support to the roots of trees
that were pushed and pulled violently by the winds. The winds
were reported to be approaching some 70 miles an hour and
if part of that speed is added to the speed of the front itself,
larger velocities can occur.

This Fallen tree blocks one of Oak Park's fire access routes on North
Boulevard, it was also one of the first cleared from the street.
© Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc. photo

A Red Honda on the left side has been customized by this arboreal giant, now horizontal, there were others cars impacted in the fall.
© Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc. photo

The man who owns the Honda told us that he works on Lake
street and will now have to walk to work, he also does not have
a seat on the Park Board or perhaps there might have been some poetic justice on the metallic art formation.

A small tree in the midst of much larger varieties is split in half, and not from apparent lightening strikes.
© Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc. photo

Neighbors have claimed the sightings of potential micro bursts
("Strong, concentrated down drafts from convective showers and thunderstorms" ). One man said that he saw rain in a swirling action above his tree and the next moment the the tree had a number of large branches pulled up in the air and from his
tree. Much of the more dramatic devastation appears in an
apparent hit and miss pattern, but a pattern that might suggest
numerous bursts of focused energy being experienced in a multitude of locations almost simultaneously, very different
than a given meandering funnel cloud.

Micro bursts and other definitions

© Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc. photos

Oak Park is reported to have some 65 trees toppled and countless branches strewn here and there. The clean up was
going well by the towns crews, all working 12 hour shifts. The
storm had passed in about 45 minutes with only intermittent
rain occurring for the rest of the day.

There were some 600,000 customers in the Cook County area
without power, some for a couple of days. Oak Park's power
loss was scattered, some blocks were all right with power and some residents right across the street were without.

Julian and Longfellow had there power go out, some businesses on Lake street, some Banks, stores, the Oak Park Arms, the
Mills Tower Senior Center, several Village and Town Halls,
and plenty of regular homes.

Downtown Oak Park was visited by Police and Emergency Vehicles when the Power went out.
© Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc. photo

Lake street was closed to traffic and secured by Police. When
the power is lost to a business that has an alarm system the Police are notified that there could be a breach in the security system or a power failure-the only way to determine which is
which is to physically inspect the situation. Chase bank, which
had a $200,000 loss to a robbery last year closed early to insure
their assets were safe. The power outage had a definite impact on more that just the trees and smashed cars.

River Forest Police and Fire Officials, even Lieutenants on their Days
Off came back in to Work.
© Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc. photo

Bare wires carrying hundreds of volts of power, full power with very dangerous amperage, lay on the ground across Greenfield
in River Forest. One tree had fallen in the violent storm and it
had pulled down a power line which in turn pulled down another power and its pole across the street. This had all happened nearly 18 hours ago and not one crew from ComEd had come or even noted when they would come. The residents were all without power but the lines on the ground were all still quite active and carrying their power.

Commonwealth Edison was contacted but they were even
taking notes on paper and had no idea when they would have crews on sight. Even with cars and barricades in place there were residents on foot and bicycles that had to be stopped
from their nearing a fatal situation, even some joggers were redirected.

Fallen Power Lines on a streaming video.

These Men are working their second round of extended 12 hour shifts.
© Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc. photo

Crews in all effected towns, men removing and shredding
fallen trees, Police and Fire workers guarding property and
lives, a neighbors helping neighbors made it through this
event. We thank each and every helpful person for their
work and concern.