Severe thunderstorms ripped the roof off of a Mount Prospect apartment complex and downed trees in parts of the Chicago area Saturday evening.
MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. (WLS) -- Severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall left damage in parts of the Chicago area Saturday.
There were multiple severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood warnings for parts of the Chicago area Saturday evening, but they have since expired.
A round of storms moved southeast from the northwest suburbs between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., and another round of storms and rain began moving through around 7 p.m.
In Mount Prospect, multiple cars appeared to be damaged after a roof was reportedly torn off of a nearby apartment building.
The 60-unit apartment building was deemed uninhabitable with the roof partially ripped off, and a closed-off parking lot was covered with debris. Mount Prospect Fire officials believe it was a microburst that caused all of this damage, forcing families out of their homes and into the pouring rain.
"Very sad day for me, for my friends, for everybody," displaced resident Halina Zielinski said. "This Mother Nature. You never know what'll happen. You never know. We're happy, you know, one day and next day, look what happened. Destroyed. Everything."
Zielinski's eyes swelled with tears after what she thought was a simple storm suddenly turned her life upside down.
"So, the third floor is a wreck. Fourth floor was a wreck, and we went outside," Zielinski said. "And, I don't have nothing. Just the clothes. It's so hard for everybody."
She was among one of several displaced families getting assistance at RecPlex in Mount Prospect after the roof to the building on nearby Huntington Commons Road was partially torn off and blown away just before 5 p.m.
"I was in the home, then all of a sudden it was a huge boom, like bomb," Zielinski said.
"As I was walking up the staircase, all the power was out," displaced resident Kamil Sereemak said. "Obviously, all the fire entrances and doors closed and everything. The fire alarms were blaring, and water was just pouring down into every part of the hallway. The ceilings were kind of collapsing in the hallways."
Fire officials said residents won't be able to return to the apartment building until the village's building department assesses all of the damages and makes sure it's safe.
"A lot of the roof had fallen into the parking lot, as well, so yeah, there could've been a lot of injuries, but we're extremely fortunate there were none," Mount Prospect Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Tom Wang said.
The storms swept through Saturday evening, bringing with it heavy rainfall and high winds through parts of the Chicago and Northwest Indiana areas.
In the city, the Taylor Street Italian Festival was rained out while the sold-out Savannah Bananas game at Rate Field was forced into a rain delay.
Damage was seen in Aurora and North Aurora, as well.
The full force of the storm also didn't spare Des Plaines, where the torrential downpour pounded the north suburb, leaving massive trees split and torn apart, and vehicles smashed.
"It was a lot of wind, and all of a sudden, a huge amount of rain, and it just came through like a tornado and branches just started falling everywhere," said Benjamin Yarber, whose daughter lives in Des Plaines.
"I was taking a nap, woke up from the storm, came out here and saw my truck smashed under the tree and it just missed my other here," Des Plaines resident Steve Kopecky said.
ComEd said 66,780 customers were without power due to the storms as of 9:30 p.m.
Even more round of storms are expected to move through the Chicago area Saturday night into early Sunday.