Chicago Tornado Causes Mayhem

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CHICAGO (GaeaTimes.com)- Chicago and its suburbs faced another severe storm on Wednesday that halted air traffic and caused damages to buildings and trees. The Chicago Emergency Management and Communications office activated a tornado warning after funnel clouds were noticed in the south suburbs. The warning sirens were activated at 6:15 pm in Chicago and went on for about three minutes. The storms also brought along hail the size of golf-balls and winds up to 70mph.

More than 2,20,000 homes have faced power outage in the tornado affected area. In Chicago and the suburbs of Maywood and Oak Park, there were a total of 88,000 cases of power outage. In the southern suburbs more than 72,000 homes were affected by power failure. 24,000 homes were in the dark in the north while 35,000 were without power in the western suburbs. More than 375 flights were canceled at Chicago’s O’Hare airport which is the second busiest airport in the US. At the Chicago Midway Airport there were delays of 45 minutes of the flights. The in and out traffic in Chicago was badly affected by the storm. The trains were also stopped in their tracks and Expressways of Stevenson and Eisenhower were also blocked by the flood waters.

Several counties in Illinois have also been warned about the chances of flash floods that could be the consequence of the storm. The Chicago area has been battered by storms and tornadoes several times this week and Wednesday’s tornado caused 450 tree emergencies. This takes the total count to 5812 tree emergencies since last Friday. No injuries have been reported so far due to the storms.