editorkid / August 23, 2007 7:50 PM

I bet the folks without power reeeeeally wish they could answer. (Seeing Wrigleyville on the way home reminded me of running down Addision a few months ago in a flash storm with a very cool friend.)

At the northern end of Andersonville here, I just had to negotiate a number of flooded corners. My poor li'l Fluevogs are drying out over next to the AC intake vent. (Thanks to the drivers headed east on Ridge nice enough to swerve away from the huge puddles so I didn't get even more drenched.)

Mo / August 23, 2007 8:10 PM

Roscoe Village between Western, School, Roscoe and Damen, trees down everywhere. Several of the streets are completely blocked. I got home by driving backwards and through some alleys. Our deck lost its wall.

Luckily we still have power.

Clint Ecker / August 23, 2007 8:34 PM

I rode my bike home after the first storm hit and before the second. I saw all sorts of uprooted trees on Clark between Irving Park and Montrose.

Wrote up all of my impressions here: http://phaedo.cx/archives/2007/08/23/horrible-weather/

charlie / August 23, 2007 9:22 PM

Big tree down on Jarvis........one of my dogs still under my desk. He has been there for like 6 hours.

I unplugged computer and stereo...

One of them bolts felt like it went right down my spine .

CEERAZY SHEEET

charlie / August 23, 2007 9:24 PM

Big tree down on Jarvis (at the lake)........one of my dogs still under my desk. He has been there for like 6 hours.

I unplugged computer and stereo...

One of them bolts felt like it went right down my spine. The rumbling on the lake is one of the reasons I have lived up here so long. No view but being this close when it heads out over the lake is fantastic. OK time for a swim ;-)

CEERAZY SHEEET

pat / August 23, 2007 10:15 PM

worked from home today, so it was just a matter of running around the apartment and slamming the windows shut. Had a basil plant take a dive from a second story porch... Oh the fragrant carnage!

a / August 23, 2007 10:29 PM

i live in roscoe village, and almost all of my tenderly cared for tomatoes, herbs, and annuals are turned over in the neighbor's yard. several uprooted trees, lots of loose power lines (but the houses all appear to have power) and a poor little mini cooper on my block bore the brunt (and trunk) of one very old tree. It's a mess.

leelah / August 23, 2007 10:31 PM

Not much damage in the 3000W block of Diversey, but over on Whipple where my car is parked, the tree carnage is heavy: large broken branches everywhere.

Steve / August 24, 2007 12:01 AM

DuPage County has been wiped off the map!

Nah, we just lost power for two and a half hours. All of the upgrades we made after taking on water and ruining lots of carpet during October's "storm of the century" paid off today and tonight -- the awning and built-up back slab kept water from pouring down our back steps and into the "lower level" (English basement) like it did back then, and the battery backup sump system just hummed and squeaked along to keep the sub-basement dry.

Oh yeah -- between rainfalls, I kept having to go out to the deck to right our ragged little hibiscus, which kept tipping over in the wind. And our front tree lost two huge branches -- they fell on the next-door neighbor's property, but I felt guilty and dragged them to the curb.

Craig / August 24, 2007 1:52 AM

Two 8'x8' plate glass windows at the Gap Outlet at Diversey/Milwaukee/Kimball exploded.

Justin / August 24, 2007 8:11 AM

A neighbor's sedan suffered windshield and roof gouges. Their luck the trunk of the offending tree fell a couple yards away.

There's half a plastic lawn chair in a tree on the street and a blue tarp snagged by the branches over my steps. My car scored some leaves.

editorkid / August 24, 2007 8:55 AM

A lot of those big beautiful old trees in Graceland and Wunders cemeteries are a lot smaller than they used to be.

annie / August 24, 2007 9:12 AM

Not much damage in Ukrainian Village. Damen was flooded last night but looks fine this morning. I got home after the second storm and the windows were open and there was a bit of water in my place, and when I was wiping it up I was feeling very grateful that my house hadn't been flooded like so many others who have hundreds or thousands in damage and worse the things that can never be replaced.

leah / August 24, 2007 9:13 AM

Humboldt was pretty quiet but I saw lightning strike this big lounging tree in Pilsen.

Sparks & tons of light & I screamed "oh sh*&!!!!" to my mom on the phone by accident.

Flynn / August 24, 2007 9:19 AM

Evanston appears to have survived mostly unscathed. Blinking traffic lights downtown, and everything was working well enough for me to catch the absolute last show of Sunshine last night.

South Evanston by Howard & Clark looks ok, too. Some minor branches down, but nothing as severe as I've heard in other places.

California was flooded pretty badly last night. I'll see how much different it looks on my ride in this morning.

BTW, biking last night ruled. If you were dressed for the conditions (post crazy storm, that is), it was MUCH easier getting around that driving, I'm sure.

Tobermory / August 24, 2007 9:27 AM

Not much by my house (Rockwell & Carmen) - one lawn chair blew over - big whoop. But I did have to drive through Winnetka and Wilmette to get home last night and it looked like the aftermath of armegeddon. Power out everywhere, 12-18" of standing water in many places and more trees down in yards and across streets than I could count. Good thing residents of those towns have lots of $$ because they're going to need it to dry out thier basements and remove the tree carnage.

Kelly / August 24, 2007 9:28 AM

Power out all down my street (Southport) from 5pm until - well it's still out as far as I know. Jewel, CVS, Chase Bank closed down. HUGE trees in the middle of the street. What a mess.

skee bop / August 24, 2007 9:29 AM

The 2800-3000 blocks of N. Albany (write near you leelah) are torn up. Trees down everywhere and debris coating the streets.

In the middle of the night last night when it was still raining a little bit my boyfriend and I woke up to a huuuuuuge crash. It scared the crap out of me and I went running to check the roof, only to realize that it was just a door slamming. Still scary as sh** - a.k.a. I hope all of you with real damage are ok.

b / August 24, 2007 9:59 AM

near the irving and sheridan red line stop - so many trees down, bricks missing from the tops of at least two buildings, a giant tree fell on the back porch of a two flat right next the the train and the roof was blown off a building on belle plaine ( i later saw it on the news), and trees are still blocking sheridan just north of irving. what a mess.

SG / August 24, 2007 10:01 AM

old irving park - lots of tree damage/branches down. Power out on a number of blocks. Our back yard was a pond last night - still under water this morning. In the wee hours this morning, there was one incredibley loud peel of thunder. It felt/sounded like a bomb went off. I honestly thought the windows were giong to break.

mary / August 24, 2007 10:01 AM

residing just south of addison and just west of lake shore... everything was fine (had power) other than fallen trees on every other corner. my coworker's brother took pics of where he lives (west lakeview) and the carnage looked pretty bad. i imagine a lot of people will be calling their car insurance providers (which reminds me of that commercial where the insurance man asks what kind of tree fell on his car).

Judy / August 24, 2007 10:20 AM

South Shore!

I haven't seen anything too bad so far. I rode home between storms and LSD south was fine, altho I was hearing that LSD northside wasn't doing as good.

Not like last year (?) when a huge tree fell across three neighbor's back yards, destroying two porches.

Sol / August 24, 2007 10:20 AM

All the surrounding offices where I work have no power. Lucky me.

skafiend / August 24, 2007 10:24 AM

Bupkis. Lots of rain at Bryn Mawr and Sheridan, but since I'm on the 11th floor, no trees or flooding to contend with. But traffic on LSD was f*ckd. However, someone tried to break into my Jeep on Wednesday when it rained I think. They didn't steal anything (nothing to steal) but they left the drivers window rolled down a bit. As a result I have a small puddle of water on the floor of the drivers side.

Other than that, Lake Shore Drive was a partial disaster. Riding the 136, saw lots of trees uprooted and knocked down on Marine Drive, other side of LSD. The area just south of the Theater on the Lake at Fullerton looks like a bulldozer went crazy.

eep / August 24, 2007 10:25 AM

Where I live in Oak Park, things are okay. A few downed trees, but nothing big.

I have friends who were hit hard. I'm very lucky.

Leelah / August 24, 2007 10:25 AM

I walked my dogs down to Logan Blvd. this morning, and the massive tree in front of my friend's house is in HALF and smashed up against her building. It had to have been struck by lightning.

kate / August 24, 2007 10:29 AM

Mo - we're totally neighbors!

My street is ok, a few big-ass limbs were in the street. Walking around and surveying the damage was kind of cool. We didn't lose power, but my friend 2 blocks over did.

Josh / August 24, 2007 10:45 AM

A few downed trees and a few downed power lines, but mostly everything is back-to-normal in Portage Park.

jen / August 24, 2007 11:02 AM

ok, that's weird - two of you live by me. that tree across whipple? narrowly missed my car - just the top branches are all up in my wheels. luckily when i walked out the door this morning i heard a lot of buzzing - which means streets & san is on it! hooray!

last night and my walk to work this morning. i got on the el 10 minutes early and got to work 10 minutes early which i thought was really strange...

Elizabeth / August 24, 2007 11:06 AM

I was actually stuck out in this shiz yesterday. My stupic a** decided to go out and wait for my bus because I still thought I could make it to a 7:00 appointment. Once I was in position at the bus stop, rain began to come at me from all directions. Then came the wind. I later found out it was gusting at 60 mph.

I took shelter in a covered outdoor hallway. The rain found me in there too. At that point it was flying at me, parallel to the ground.

Finally I said screw it and decided to go home. I sprinted across the street to my apartment and wound up dripping all over my floor Once I changed clothes, I went out onto my enclosed porch and enjoyed a much deserved Parliament.

Other than the damage to my psyche, no other harm was caused in my neck of the woods.

mike / August 24, 2007 11:09 AM

Lincoln Park. Overturned double strollers everywhere. Dozens of popped collars blown down.

fluffy / August 24, 2007 11:14 AM

the corner of Wood and Thomas was closed off with yellow and red (danger) tape- half of a really big tree seems to have exploded off. There were chunks of tree trunk everywhere and the piece of tree blocked off the whole street- no one could get past it.

I didn't lose power, but the lightning was right outside my window.

At work yesterday, we saw the storm approach from the west as it made its way into downtown, going over the river. Afterwards, there were picnic table umbrellas everywhere and the riverwalk restaurants' chairs were all over the place.

Mr. M was not scared and in fact, he slept at the foot of the bed, by the window, sort of protecting me. He got a special treat this morning.

CC / August 24, 2007 11:17 AM

Mike, what about the Jettas?? Are they okay?!

skafiend / August 24, 2007 11:24 AM

Mike...

LOL. Bravo. Thanks for the laugh.

I heard that a tree limb fell and smashed a case of Miller Lite too...

steven / August 24, 2007 11:41 AM

In Lakeview, it seemed like there was a tree down on every side street. Traffic lights were out.
Something hit the old car wash at Wrigley (now a bike holding area during games) and smashed a good portion of it to pieces.

carrie / August 24, 2007 12:12 PM

Hmm, Fluffy, Wood and Thomas seems to have lots of exploding trees- at HV a couple months ago, someone came in and said "if you own a jeep, MOVE IT, a tree is ready to fall on it."

Anyway, took Milwaukee bus home last night. My friend got off at Mil and Oakley and things look ok-ish, it was ready to rain, but I thought we'd make it to Green Eye a-ok. HA! Right, one block later it starts pouring and so we get off the bus, are outside for maybe 2 minutes and are completely drenched. All I could do was laugh and hope that I didn't look like Tammy Faye.

All the water did cause our building water meter thing to go bonkers. I came home this morning and it was beeping. Poor Deedles probably went slightly insane hearing it all night. Good thing I came to the rescue and hit the reset button. My block looked fine though. Didn't see any trees down or anything. I could even cross Western this morning like a normal person and not worry about jumping across a huge puddle and falling in it.

carrie / August 24, 2007 12:14 PM

I messed up, meant Thomas and Wolcott, not Wood. let's just blame it on Thomas.

Stephen / August 24, 2007 12:25 PM

I'm at the NW corner of Wood & Augusta. Looks like half of the 1000 block of N. Wood, along with the 1000 block of N. Honore, and the 1800 block of W. Augusta, has been without power since 4pm yesterday. That includes me, dammit.

david / August 24, 2007 12:38 PM

Fortunately for me, the storm didn't seem to be so bad in Hyde Park. I lost power for a couple of minutes, but beyond that, it doesn't seem like much happened. Now that microburst storm a couple of years ago was something else...

Jake / August 24, 2007 1:12 PM

We didn't lose power (Albany Park), but when I woke up this morning we had no phone. Therefore no DSL. I was planning on working from home today. Boo. Had to go to work.

fluffy / August 24, 2007 2:00 PM

Stephen, I'm on Thomas, between Honore and Wollcott. HV is my next door neighboor. Anyway, I never lost power.

And Carrie, my apologies, about the tree explosion , it occurred just north of the corner of Thomas and Honore.

JasonB / August 24, 2007 2:34 PM

Never lost power and there are no trees where I live... though my once proud & fearless german shepherd, Sir Charles Barkley, was reduced to a shivering pile of fur, as he hid beneath my piano the entire night.

When I returned home for lunch today, he was still there.

Olive / August 24, 2007 2:45 PM

Budlong Woods area - California and Foster. Power out from 3:15 or so on Thurs, and as of right now, power is still off. I bought some ice to put in a cooler to store my meats. I am at a cafe checking my internet.

Helped clean up trees at my church in Old Irving Park. Lots of tree carnage around Independence Park.

Stephen / August 24, 2007 2:45 PM

fluffy - this is what bugged me the most! everyone else in the 'hood seems to have power except our half-block from 1000 - 1030 N. Wood (west side of street) & 1001 - 1029 N. Honore (east side of street). So, all night we could see everyone else enjoying electricity except for us :-(

d. / August 24, 2007 3:25 PM

carrie! i was at the HV that night with my sister. we went out and ogled that tree about to fall over on the jeep -- that was pretty hilarious because of the huge fuss.

man, we're all neighbors. i live on hoyne between thomas and haddon.

Lori / August 24, 2007 3:53 PM

We just rode bikes through Riis Park to see what all happened up there.... trees all over the place! mostly seem to be soft maples. I was worried about the big old oaks, but they all made it through, with only one having had the top blown off

there are branches down all over the streets, but power is on.

printdude / August 24, 2007 6:31 PM

The storm moved real quick through my hood - Just east of Midway - but as soon as it was over ('round 3:30) we lost power. The first creepings of water showed up then in basement. The as the second surge came through, we gained a lot of water, which was unstopped by our un-electrified sump pump. We didn't get our power back until sometime before noon today - luckliy we hadn't opened our fridge or freezer and all food products were saved. A few basement pieces of furntiture have been moved to the alley and clean up has begun.

Fairly lucky, we are.
I'll be drinking tomorrow in celebration.

skafiend ,you up for a party?

Dutch101 / August 25, 2007 11:29 AM

Our neighborhood, Uptown/Andersonville, not too much. Many small branches and it did rain a shit ton. Rode south last night, Wunders cemetary is totally torn up, some crushed cars and downed trees down that way. Quite a storm, and many life-long Chicagoans I know say they've never seen anything quite like that.
Interesting.

paul / August 25, 2007 8:07 PM

Power and cable finally back on in Evanston.

Not a lot of large tree damage where I am, but a large chunk of town was out for 24 hours and a smaller area (me) out for longer.

Michael / August 26, 2007 1:56 PM

I just got power back this morning. My school kept us locked in for about an hour and then after they got clearance from the police they let us go. On my walk home I saw houses with trees in the living rooms, there was a car stopped in the middle of the street with a tree in the windshield- stuff like that. My house had two downed power lines (one of which was active) in the yard, and there was a huge puddle on the intersection of my street and the alley that was electrified. Not so cool. I'm getting hot water back in an hour.

Cheryl / August 26, 2007 2:04 PM

Ravenswood Manor--some big branches down, but no whole trees that I know of. We had power when I got home Thursday night. My cabbie DROVE ON THE SIDEWALK for part of it to keep from flooding his cab in the viaducts.