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    Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune

    A damaged car is surrounded by downed tree branches on North Hamilton Avenue, Aug. 11, 2020, after a powerful storm tore through the area Monday evening in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. A tornado was also confirmed to have touched down in Rogers Park Monday according to the National Weather Service.

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    Kids take dip in Lake Michigan at Solidarity Drive as thunderstorm clouds approach Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020.

  • An uprooted tree in Logan Square on Aug. 10, 2020.

    Heidi Stevens / Chicago Tribune

    An uprooted tree in Logan Square on Aug. 10, 2020.

  • People survey the damage to the roof of College Church...

    Mark Hume / Chicago Tribune

    People survey the damage to the roof of College Church in Wheaton after a severe storm toppled the steeple at the church across the street from Wheaton College on Aug. 10, 2020.

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    Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune

    Neighbors with a hand saw clear a tree blocking Kedzie Avenue in Logan Square on Aug. 10, 2020, after a large storm passed through the city.

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    Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune

    Neighbors clear a downed tree along Logan Boulevard on Aug. 10, 2020, after a large storm passed through the city.

  • Storm-damaged trees in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago on...

    Heidi Stevens / Chicago Tribune

    Storm-damaged trees in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020.

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    Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune

    Chicago Park District workers clear a downed tree partially blocking Damen Avenue at Hamlin Park in Lakeview.

  • Downed trees along Logan Boulevard on Aug. 10, 2020, after...

    Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune

    Downed trees along Logan Boulevard on Aug. 10, 2020, after a large storm hit Chicago.

  • Downed trees along Logan Boulevard on Aug. 10, 2020.

    Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune

    Downed trees along Logan Boulevard on Aug. 10, 2020.

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    Michael Phillips / Chicago Tribune

    Trees damaged by the storm in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020.

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    Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune

    A downed branch on a parked car in the Lakeview neighborhood on Aug. 10, 2020.

  • People survey the damage from the roof of College Church...

    Mark Hume / Chicago Tribune

    People survey the damage from the roof of College Church in Wheaton after a storm toppled the steeple on the Wheaton College campus on Aug. 10, 2020.

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    Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune

    A downed tree is seen atop a car on S. Greenwood Avenue in Chicago on Aug. 11, 2020, a day after a violent storm rolled through the region.

  • A broken tree fell onto a van along West Jarlath...

    Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune

    A broken tree fell onto a van along West Jarlath Street after a powerful derecho storm tore through the area Monday evening, as seen Aug. 11, 2020, in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.

  • A damaged car is surrounded by downed tree branches on...

    Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune

    A damaged car is surrounded by downed tree branches on North Hamilton Avenue, Aug. 111, 2020, after a powerful storm tore through the area Monday evening in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.

  • Downed power lines in Logan Square on Aug. 10, 2020,...

    Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune

    Downed power lines in Logan Square on Aug. 10, 2020, after storms hit the Chicago area.

  • Damaged trees litter Rogers Park, Aug. 11, 2020, after a...

    Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune

    Damaged trees litter Rogers Park, Aug. 11, 2020, after a powerful storm tore through the area Monday evening in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. A tornado was also confirmed to have touched down in Rogers Park Monday according to the National Weather Service.

  • Corbett Wilkinson climbs on a downed tree in Rogers Park...

    Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune

    Corbett Wilkinson climbs on a downed tree in Rogers Park after a powerful storm tore through the area Monday evening in the West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.

  • Damaged trees litter Rogers Park, Aug. 11, 2020, after a...

    Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune

    Damaged trees litter Rogers Park, Aug. 11, 2020, after a powerful storm tore through West Rogers Park Monday evening.

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High winds and hard rain swept through the Chicago area Monday, ripping off roofs, crashing trees to the ground and causing widespread power outages, but officials said the area generally appeared to have dodged dire warnings of tornadoes and golf-ball-size hail.

The derecho, meaning a long line of storms packing high winds, blew in from Iowa, where winds surpassed 100 mph. It swept east across Illinois and into Indiana, with winds of 40 to 70 mph, the National Weather Service reported.

The service issued tornado warnings in the Chicago area, and several funnel clouds and rotating clouds were reported, but no twisters and no deaths or injuries were immediately confirmed, weather service meteorologist Bryan Leatherwood said.

“It was still a rather impressive storm,” he said. “We’re getting tons of reports of downed large trees and power lines down, and debris thrown through the walls of houses.”

ComEd reported that 462,000 of its customers were without power, more than half of them in the Chicago area.

A building under construction partially collapsed in the 1800 block of South Canalport Avenue in East Pilsen, according to the Chicago Fire Department. And the steeple on College Church, across the street from Wheaton College, collapsed, spokesman Joseph Moore said.

People survey the damage to the roof of College Church in Wheaton after a severe storm toppled the steeple at the church across the street from Wheaton College on Aug. 10, 2020.
People survey the damage to the roof of College Church in Wheaton after a severe storm toppled the steeple at the church across the street from Wheaton College on Aug. 10, 2020.

In Chicago’s Lincoln Park, one huge tree toppled over and crashed onto a van on Wrightwood Avenue.

Lucas Seiler, who owns a public relations firm, was working from home and had just received a tornado warning on his phone when the sky took on an eerie green tint and the air cooled suddenly.

“I heard this crackling noise, and down came a huge tree which I loved,” he said. “It’s massive. You can see the roots tore up the brick that was on the ground.”

The tree pinned down a van used by workers renovating a nearby condominium, he said. The lights flickered off and on intermittently. As quickly as the storm came, it passed. “It was over in a matter of minutes,” Seiler said.

In Bronzeville, the south side wall of Pilgrim Baptist Church, 3301 S. Indiana Ave., collapsed into an empty side lot, Preservation Chicago Executive Director Ward Miller said.

The church was gutted by a fire in 2006, and church members and preservationists have been trying to raise funds ever since to renovate the structure, designed by architects Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. Recently, it was proposed to be converted into a gospel music museum. Miller said the collapse was unfortunate but he remained hopeful the edifice could still be saved.

In the Logan Square neighborhood, tree branches plummeted onto power lines, cutting power on several blocks south of Diversey Avenue and east of Kedzie Street.

Kelly Abolt, a Chicago Public Schools educator at Prescott Elementary, surveyed her car parked on Albany Avenue near Schubert Street. Barely visible underneath a wet blanket of green leaves, the car’s windshield was pierced by a huge branch.

“And we have a 6-month old!” the masked Abolt said, noting that they parked on that particular block that morning only because of street cleaning regulations on their own stretch of Albany, near Logan Boulevard.

Emergency management workers in the city and suburbs reported scattered downed trees and utility poles.

Warnings of tornadoes, high winds and severe thunderstorms in the area expired late in the afternoon, but the storms were expected to batter parts of Wisconsin, Iowa and Indiana through about 7 p.m.

About 2:40 p.m., a wind gust of 92 mph hit near Dixon, Illinois, with 20 to 30 minutes of winds gusting more than 50 mph, according to the weather service. Just before 4 p.m., the weather service reported, winds reached 72 mph at Midway Airport and 62 mph at O’Hare International Airport.

O’Hare saw about 175 flights canceled and Midway about 15 by just before 5 p.m.

Near Belvidere, 1-inch hailstones fell about 3 p.m.

By a little before 5 p.m., “much of northern Illinois (had) pockets of damage, with downed trees, debris, and powerlines blocking roadways,” according to the weather service. Multiple roads in Lake County were blocked because of downed trees and power lines, according to the Lake County sheriff’s office.

In the city, the CTA said it was having service disruptions on the Red, Brown and Purple lines because of debris on tracks near Belmont and Loyola avenues, and delays on the Pink and Green lines.

In Naperville, more than 300 homes in one area had power outages, but power was restored to those homes by 5:45 p.m., and major roads remained open, said Kate Schultz, a spokeswoman for the city of Naperville.

Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau said that there might be a few tree limbs lost around Orland Park but “nothing major” or “out of the ordinary” was reported following the storm.

Park Forest officials posted on the village’s Facebook page that the village had sustained extensive storm damage, including downed trees and power lines, with an estimated half of the village without electricity.

The storm prompted the rescheduling of a Village Board meeting that was to have been held Monday evening.

At least one Lake County home was severely damaged, two people sustained non-life-threatening injuries, dozens of trees came down and thousands lost power Monday afternoon as a storm with 65-mph winds blew through area communities, local officials said based on early damage reports.

With up to an inch of rain forecast, the weather service issued a limited flood risk.

The storm system was paired with humid conditions and a heat index of more than 100 degrees in the Chicago area.

“You can almost wear the air,” said Brett Borchardt, a weather service meteorologist. “This kind of air is like rocket fuel to storms.”

A derecho is a wind storm that stretches more than 240 miles, punctuated by wind gusts of more than 55 mph. They are not common but increasingly have threatened the Chicago area in the past decade or so, including a double derecho in 2010 and another in 2014, meteorologists have said.

To Logan Park resident Ken Carl, and so many others, the storm was simply the latest round of adversity this harsh year.

“I’ve lived here all my life, since 1956,” said the freelance photographer. “I’ve never felt the sense of uncertainty that I feel now. I think of the odd parallels between 1968 and today. In ’68 you had a flu epidemic, you had the race riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King, and then came the presidential election. Odd parallels. Yet I’ve never felt the sense of uncertainty that I feel now.”

As thunder boomed to the east, Carl paused. “But one thing I truly believe? I believe America can continue to move forward and meet the challenges of 2020. These are bad, thunderous times, but who knows — maybe we’ll come out of it all, this entire year, from COVID to the election, for the better.”

For forecast updates, check the Tribune’s weather page.

Chicago Tribune’s Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas and Rafael Guerrero and Lake County News-Sun freelance reporter Steve Sadin contributed.