A line of showers with brief strong winds caused numerous tree limbs to fall and a number of small power outages late Tuesday afternoon across the Marion County area. The Centralia Fire Department reported downed tree limbs brought down several power lines. Ameren at the height of the storm activity reported just over 200 without electricity. Salem Police and Marion County Sheriff’s Deputies also reported downed tree limbs and isolated power outages. Green Street Road east of Central City was blocked for a short time by a large fallen tree limb. The storm produced only six-one-hundredths of an inch of rain at the Salem Water Treatment Plant.
Meanwhile, more than 90,000 Chicago-area homes and businesses remained without power Wednesday morning following severe overnight thunderstorms that came one day after at least seven tornadoes touched down in parts of northern Illinois. Commonwealth Edison says that as of 7 a.m. CDT, about 96,000 Commonwealth Edison customers remained without power, with most of those in Cook, Lake, McHenry, and Kane counties after a Tuesday storm raked the area with wind gusts of up to 70 mph. The weather service confirmed Tuesday that at least seven tornadoes touched down Monday in northern Illinois, with three of those storms given preliminary ratings as EF-1 tornadoes, which produce winds between 86-110 mph.
