Around noon on July 1st DuPage County was hit hard by a storm with winds over 100 miles per hour. The storm only lasted 40 minutes or so. It’s unbelievable what a storm can do in such a short period of time. At the time of the storm I was in Belvidere Illinois holding an open house. I could see storm clouds but the storm never hit Belvidere. My husband told me to take my time coming home because the weather was so bad.
As I was driving down Route 59 I could see how hard the storm hit areas like Bartlett, West Chicago, Carol Stream, Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, Winfield and Warrenville. Route 59 and Stearns was the beginning of where some of the damage occured. Power was out from Stearns to Batavia Road in Warrenville. Driving through these cities was slow go. Every stop light was out. The only places that had power were the businesses with generators. When I made it home I couldn’t believe what I saw. It had to be a tornado. Trees and power lines were down everywhere. My kids said it was like a nightmare. Later that day we took a trip to Reed Keppler Park, a 5 minute walk from my house, and we viewed the ABC News Van getting ready to video or shoot live around 10pm. We couldn’t walk because the power lines were down.
ABC News says you can go online to check the Outage Alerts from Commonwealth Edison. www.comed.com. If you don’t have power take advantage of the local Starbucks, Panera, McDonald’s or anywhere you can get online. Check on your neighbors and if you are looking for a place to cool off go to the mall. If your home is on the market and you are out of power make sure you empty the icemaker, take out the clothes in the washing machine and hang them to dry. Let the listing agent know to put your home temporarily off the market until the power comes back on.
As of today, around 5:30pm Power for many is still out. We were without power from 12:30pm until 3:40am on July 2nd. Check out the photos from behind the Willow Creek Townhomes and the down trees at Reed Keppler Park. If you need help don’t hestiate to ask your neighbors and remember for all emergencies call 911.
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