Minor Damage Reported After Powerful Storm Tears Through Oak Lawn

A powerful storm system swept through Oak Lawn early Sunday afternoon, leaving hundreds of residents without power and causing some wind damage.

Tornado sirens were sounded in Palos Hills, Hickory Hills, Chicago Ridge and Burbank, according to readers who posted on Oak Lawn Patch’s Facebook page.

Oak Lawn’s new tornado siren system also went off, but residents said they couldn’t hear it, nor were they able to understand the muffled verbal instructions.

Chicago’s local CBS and NBC TV news stations reported a possible tornado touching down near 111th Street and Cicero Avenue, but the report turned out to be unfounded.

The tornado sighting came from a trained weather spotter in Chicago who called Oak Lawn police and asked for confirmation of the the funnel cloud, Lt. Art Clark of the Oak Lawn Police Department said.

The storm also knocked out power to about 1,100 residents from 52nd Avenue to Pulaski Road, and from 87th Street to 101st Streets, according to Clark.

As of Sunday evening, 400 homes were still without electricity.

“People need to be patient,” Clark said. “Commonweath Edison is working to restore power in areas of Oak Lawn. We’re on the list”

Regionally, tornadoes blew through Central Illinois on Sunday, killing four people near the towns of Washington and Nashville, IL, in Tazewell County, the Chicago Tribune reported.

There were also confirmed tornado touchdowns in Will County near Frankfort, and around Coal City in Grundy.

Other storm damage reported locally in the Oak Lawn area:

• Power was knocked out in the usual area, roughly form 52nd Avenue to Pulaski Road, and from 87th Street to 101st St.

• An electric pole also snapped off at the bottom behind Fox’s Restaurant and Pub at 9240 S. Cicero Ave. Oak Lawn Tr. Alex Olejniczak, whose second district was most affected by Sunday’s storm, described the wooden pole as being heavily decayed around the bottom of the pole. Markings indicated that the pole had not been inspected since 1983. “This could have been prevented,” Olejniczak said. “I do not buy the weather issue on this. This is due to no preventative maintenance.”

• A roof blew off a resident’s home, also in Dist. 2.