Cary residents undergo more storms after weekend damage
State of emergency declared in Cary after storms
Residents in Cary prepared for another round of storms Monday after damaging winds swept through the area over the weekend.
CARY, Ill. - After destructive weekend storms prompted a state of emergency in the Village of Cary, residents were relieved that Monday’s rain caused little new damage.
With cleanup efforts still underway across the community, ComEd crews were working to repair outages for the remaining customers without power.
What we know:
Heavy rain fell Monday, just two days after Saturday's storms caused significant damage.
Now, cleanup continues in Cary, where powerful winds toppled trees onto homes, knocked down utility poles, and caused widespread outages.
"There were branches on the deck, there were branches on the roof, there were branches all over the lawn," said Thom Lange, who lives in Cary and experienced severe storm damage.
South of Crystal Street on High Road, Lange was initially relieved to get rain on Saturday.
"I was looking out the window and I said, 'Oh this is a really nice, good, steady rain.' We need this. And just as I said that, the rain started to go sideways and my wife said, 'We need to get downstairs now,'" Lange said.
On Monday, with a hole in his roof, the rain didn't stopped.
"We've got buckets that are collecting the water when it does rain, but yeah, it's raining in that room, the bedroom is next to that—it's raining in there. We have a bathroom in that addition as well, there's just water coming in any time it rains," Lange said.
For residents, like Lange, the power is back up and running. He shared that he is thankful he and his wife, along with their dogs, are safe.
"If it's $30,000, $50,000, who cares. We're all okay, we survived it. It was a scary experience but we just move on," Lange said.
As residents await insurance adjustors and damage surveys, ComEd crews are on the ground to get customers back online.
Cary Lake at Rotary Park will remain closed through at least Wednesday while ComEd uses the site as a staging area for storm recovery.
"All the roads are clear, everything is passable, we're working on the final power lines that need to be done because we lost a lot of poles," said Cary Mayor Mark Kownick.
Kownick declared a state of emergency on Saturday after it was discovered that the village's water treatment plant lost power.
"It kind of left us in a real crisis situation," Kownick said.
The order allowed them to act swiftly, restoring power to the plant and avoiding any loss of water pressure to area homes.
Across the region, about 215,000 customers were affected by the weekend storms.
"We've gotten more than 99% restored to this point," said ComEd spokesperson John Schoen. "We work to try and get critical customers like fire, police, hospitals, nursing homes up first. And then we start working through the repairs that'll get us the most number of people up quickly."
As part of its mutual aid partnerships, ComEd is also getting help from crews in other areas.
"We've got hundreds of crews on the ground, both ComEd crews and we also have mutual assistance crews that have come in from Ameren downstate that are helping us out. And they're working as hard as they can and as quickly as they can to get everybody back up," Schoen said.
Schoen also reminds residents to keep safety in mind during severe weather.
"We hope that if people think there's a downed line in their yard, they won't go near it. Even if it's not sparking, that doesn't mean that it isn't alive," Schoen said. "This storm was pretty destructive and so you could have lines tangled up in tree debris that you can't see. It's really best to stay clear, but if there is a downed line in your yard, call us, 1-800-334-7661 and we'll get someone out to take a look at it and make sure they stay with it until a crew can get there to get it restored."
What's next:
Residents who experienced damage are encouraged to submit a damage survey, which will help McHenry County's Emergency Management Agency calculate a total dollar amount in damage sustained during the storms.
If the area hits a certain threshold, recovery aid might be possible, though it is not guaranteed.
The survey isn't live yet, but will be posted here by Tuesday afternoon.
Additionally, SNAP recipients who lost food during a qualifying power outage of four hours or more can request replacement, but losses must be reported within 10 days.
The Village of Cary will be starting brush pickup on Monday, Aug. 25.