Tornado Rips Chicago Suburbs

A tornado swept through communities in heavily populated suburban Chicago, damaging more than 100 homes, toppling trees, knocking out power, and causing multiple injuries, officials said. At least five people, including a woman who was listed in critical condition, were hospitalized in Naperville, where 16 homes were left “uninhabitable" and dozens of other homes were damaged when a tornado touched down after 11pm Sunday, said city spokeswoman Linda LaCloche. More than 120 other reports of property damage had been received by 5am Monday in the city about 25 miles west of Chicago, and those were expected to grow as residents surveyed the damage, per the AP. About 450 power outages were reported.

“We’re lucky that it wasn’t worse," LaCloche said Monday morning. “We have a lot of utility poles and electrical wires down, and tree damage." Officials in the nearby village of Woodridge said a tornado touched down late Sunday and a damage assessment was underway. Matt Friedlein, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville, Illinois, said a team from the weather service would be surveying damage Monday to determine the tornado's strength and its path. He said the same storm is believed to have rolled through Naperville, Woodridge, and Darien, and may have also caused damage in Burr Ridge, about 20 miles southwest of Chicago.

(More tornado stories.)