DPW Superintendent John Wielebnicki planning clean up of the damage left by the storm this morning. The storm brought down, or severely damaged, approximately 40 trees.

The storm, which hit Oak Park about 8 am this morning, came and went within an hour, but not before high winds seriously damaged approximately 40 Oak Park trees and knocked down 12 power lines. Some Oak Park neighborhoods remain without power at mid-day.

This morning’s storm also dropped over a half of inch of rain in our south Oak Park rain gauge, which our gardens no doubt appreciated.

Inspecting a large, fallen tree branch at a south Oak Park home.

Fortunately no injuries occurred as a result of this mornings storm.

However, with several big branches grazing homes and landing on streets and sidewalks, we will use this opportunity as a reminder for citizens to continue to take storm warning messages, and ominous clouds, seriously.

ComEd has advised us that of this Monday afternoon (7-11-11) writing at 3 pm, over 500,000 accounts in the Chicagoland area remain without power. ComEd has called in extra contractors to assist with repairs.

With the ever increasing number of quick, volatile storms we find ourselves paying to clean up after, I’m increasingly convinced climate change is having a steroid type of effect on our weather and juicing up the number and volatility of our storms even faster than the experts are suggesting. Surely somebody must be checking on this.

The US Weather services were spot on with this mornings storm predictions and warning systems. Good job weather people and media for spreading the word.

As of 6:00 pm on July 11 there are 3000 Oak Parker’s without power.