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Tornadic Storm Clears Wrigley Field, Brings Havoc

 CBS News Tools: Airport Tracker

CHICAGO (CBS) A powerful storm Monday night led to tornado warnings in downtown Chicago, evacuated fans from the stands at Wrigley Field, and left a path of damage and an atmosphere of panic.

Storms continued throughout the night into Tuesday morning.

Dark and treacherous skies loomed over much of the game between the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros on Monday evening, according to CBS station WBBM-TV in Chicago.

The game telecast was interrupted for an Emergency Alert System broadcast announcing a tornado warning for areas west of Chicago. Soon afterward, rain interrupted the game.

At about 8:10 p.m. CST, winds that seemed near gale force began raking the area and the air raid siren that stands sentinel outside Wrigley Field began howling, joining other sirens in the city, reported WBBM-TV.

A voice on the public address system ordered everyone to move into the stadium concourse.

"They told you to get out, down to the concourse, because of bad weather," said Ron Swanson. "A lot of games out here and I've never heard that before; I've never heard that boomer go out across the street."

"I've been coming out here for 30 years. I've never seen anything like it," added fan Mary Eggers. "At least they told us to get out; they warned us and told us to get going."

Hundreds of fans jammed the lower concourse, standing in water almost to their ankles. Many people were frightened.

"The rain started coming down, they started covering the field, and about 10 minutes later they asked us to move towards cover, and then we started hearing the tornado sirens go off," said Suzie Edwards. "It was pretty scary."

Several small children and more than a few adults were terrified.

But a few people darted into the violent rain and spinning winds, narrowly missing traffic on busy streets to seek shelter in nearby bars or catch one of the few available cabs.

The National Weather Service did not immediately confirm any tornado touchdowns, but it said trained spotters reported high-rotation winds in DeKalb and Kane counties in northeastern Illinois, where widespread tree and power line damage was reported.

Winds clocked in at 70 mph.

Passengers at O'Hare International Airport were evacuated into the lower levels of the complex's buildings. All flights were temporarily halted, and travelers who had already boarded airplanes were taken off as the storm struck, then led to the lower levels as a precaution.

"It was pretty cramped down there, the whole terminal was down there," said George Wickens, 50, of London, who was trying to travel to Florida with his family. "I don't think anything will be getting out of Chicago tonight."

The storms did not cause any damage or injuries at O'Hare or Midway Airport, said Department of Aviation spokesman Gregg Cunningham.

More than 350 flights were canceled at O'Hare. All flights that resumed at O'Hare averaged an hour or more, Cunningham said. At Midway, delays averaged 90 minutes, with some cancellations reported.

Planes were flying again Tuesday morning, but delays were expected to continue.

The fast-moving storms caught many Chicagoans by surprise.

Kristin Febor, 21, of Chicago, and her friends watched the rain approach from the roof of a downtown high-rise.

"The wind picked up and in probably five seconds it blew (my friend) into her husband," Febor said. "He grabbed her and pulled her inside and we all ran down the stairs. It was like dead still and then within five seconds, 10 seconds, we were all blown away."

Warning sirens sent pedestrians scrambling into high-rises and train stations for shelter.

Security guards at the Ogilvie train station, just off the Chicago River, ushered people streaming inside away from large glass windows and into the middle of the building.

"The lightning between the buildings was looking ominous," said Michaela Nelson, a 58-year-old singer from Barrington, brushing her dripping-wet hair at the station. "And then it just poured."

On Tuesday morning, 238,000 Commonwealth Edison customers, the majority of whom are in Chicago and the southern suburbs, had no electricity, according to ComEd spokesman Jeff Burdick.

A total of about 427,000 customers were affected since the storms started, according to Burdick.

"We have about 270 crews out. They've been working throughout the night," said ComEd Vice President Fidel Marquez. "As of this point, we've restored power to 165,000 customers, but the work will continue 24 hours until we get this done."

The outages will likely take days to fix, Marquez said.

"At this point, we're still saying it's a multiple-day restoration. We're asking a lot of our customers to be patient as we work on clearing all the damage and restoring power," Marquez said. "We'll get a better idea as work goes throughout the day on the extent of damage, and then have a better idea on when the last customer will be restored."

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