Storm Rips Down Trees, Knocks Out Power

Sun-Times Media Wire

Chicago - Trains have been stopped and thousands are without power after severe weather, which prompted tornado warnings, moved through the Chicago area Tuesday evening.

The National Weather Service issued the warning as a dangerous storm swept through several counties, including DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake and Will.
By 9:30 p.m., it appeared the storms were moving away from Chicago to the northeast.
Metra reported a “variety of delays and stops,” mostly because of high winds. At 9:30 p.m., “more than 10 trains” were stopped on all Metra tracks, said Metra spokesman Michael Gillis, who described delays as “extensive.”
An inbound train from Elgin to Chicago was stopped because of a tree that fell onto the tracks, Gillis said.
All Union Pacific Northwest Line trains and Union Pacific West Line trains were stopped, while some Union Pacific North Line trains were also affected, a Metra service advisory said.
As of 8:30 p.m., about 10,000 Commonwealth Edison customers were without power. About 5,000 of those were in the southern suburbs, ComEd spokesman Bennie Currie said. In the west suburbs, 4,000 are in the dark, about 600 are without power in the northern suburbs and about 200 in the city.
Currie said that number was expected to rise in the storm's aftermath.
At Chicago's airports, more than 300 flight have been canceled at O'Hare Airport, while all fights in and out are being delayed an hour more because of rain and thunderstorms both in the Chicago area and in other areas of the country, the city’s Department of Aviation said.
At Midway Airport, a number of flights were delayed up to two hours, while 30 have been canceled, the department said.

Source of  www.myfoxchicago.com