Power outages, hail reported in Geneva

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GENEVA – Debbie Torres, 48, of North Aurora had a good view of lightning hitting a tree in downtown Geneva on Thursday.

She and Rich Adamson, 19, of Aurora were working at The Olive Mill, 315 James St., when she said lightning split bark from the bottom part of the tree, which often is inhabited by owls in the spring, at South Third and James streets.

“I saw a spark then heard a boom instantly,” she said.

“It sounded like a bomb went off,” Adamson added.

Residents across Kane County and the Chicago area had stories about funnel clouds, tree damage and more rain than the region wanted to see.

“This is probably one of our busiest events so far this year,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Casey Sullivan.

Wind gusts of 67 mph were reported at DuPage Airport in West Chicago, he said.

The National Weather Service Web site shows reports of hail up to the size of half-dollars in Geneva and rotating funnel clouds in Sugar Grove, Maple Park, Geneva and St. Charles.

“We’ve had a number of citizen reports of funnel clouds,” said Tri-Com Central Dispatch Director Jerry Bleck, adding that none of the reports included touch-downs.

Most of the calls came from the Elburn area at about 3 p.m. About five minutes later, the storm hit the Tri-Cities area.

Storm-related damage at the loading dock of UpTime Parts Inc. in West Chicago injured 40 workers, seven of whom were sent to area hospitals with nonlife-threatening injuries, said West Chicago Deputy Police Chief Bruce Malkin.

“It blew the roof off and caused the structure to collapse,” Malkin said. “It’s structurally unsafe. It’s very unstable.”

The first of two lines of thunderstorms came through about the time many schools finished for the day. To protect students, school districts enacted their emergency or tornado plans that kept children in the buildings. Some buses carrying Geneva School District 304 elementary students were called back during the bad weather. Batavia School District 101 buses were told to take students to the nearest school to take shelter during the storms.

Power outages

ComEd spokesman Tom Stevens said that at 8 p.m., 310,000 customers in the Chicago area were without power, including 14,000 residents in the western suburbs.

“These numbers are obviously fluid and subject to change,” he said. “It may be [multiple] days before some customers are finally restored.”

Geneva Public Works Director Dan Dinges said ComEd’s power outages affected the city, which had about 3,000 customers without power at the peak of the outages.

“The majority of the outage is due to some lines that went down on ComEd’s side,” Dinges said. “We’re just kind of waiting to get the power from them and then we’ll be able to get everybody back online.”

One section of the city – on Fargo Boulevard near Dunstan Road – was especially hard hit damaging utility poles and trees and closing streets while crews made repairs, Dinges said.

St. Charles had power outages on the city’s east side between Ninth and 12th avenues and Madison and Adams avenues, said Missy Freyling of the St. Charles police. A tree damaged utility poles and crews continued to work to restore power at 10 p.m.

Batavia had power outages scattered throughout the city, according to Batavia police dispatchers, which answer calls about outages after business hours.

Sheriff’s office fields calls

Kane County sheriff’s police received many calls reporting power lines and tree limbs down, along with standing water. Most were located in the central part of the county, west of Randall Road, said Kane County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Pat Gengler.

The inmate vegetable stand that sits in front of the Sheriff’s Office on Fabyan Parkway blew down in the storm. Wreckage and produce filled the lawn.

Damaged and broken trees were scattered around the Fabyan Forest Preserve on both sides of the Fox River.

In Geneva, storms damaged an elevator shaft on the south side of the Herrington Inn and Spa, said General Manager Paul Ruby. Guests would be able to use another elevator or stairs.

“It’s a minor inconvenience,” Ruby said. “Nothing that can’t be fixed.”

Guests had been sent to the hotel’s first floor during the storms, Ruby said.

Sugar Grove and South Elgin seemed to escape having much damage.

According to the Sugar Grove Police Department, the village did not have reports of street flooding or power outages like the Tri-Cities area. Sugar Grove did see rain and some marble-sized hail.

South Elgin had two streets flooded, two trees down, but little other damage, according to its public works department. Village public works crews helped ComEd with calls of downed wire and branches and with other electrical calls.

The South Elgin Police Department had been responding to a fire on the city’s east side as well as to trees down. It had no other information regarding storm-related calls.

Click here to read about flooding in the area.