The National Weather Service (NWS) has confirmed that an EF-1 tornado traveled from Yorkville to south Naperville on Monday night.
17-mile path taken by EF-1 tornado
A storm survey map posted by the NWS shows the tornado’s nearly 17-mile path originating in Yorkville, slightly east of Beecher Road, at 8:55 p.m., then traveling eastward through Oswego, before taking a northeast slant and entering Naperville just south of Wolf’s Crossing Road.
It then traveled along the Tall Grass Greenway Trail and across Frontier Sports Complex, continuing through residential areas until it died out just south of the intersection of Knoch Knolls Road and West Street at 9:15 p.m.
The tornado had estimated winds of up to 100 mph and a width that stretched up to 200 yards. No injuries were reported in the event.
This was one of 11 tornadoes confirmed so far by the NWS which hit northern Illinois and northwest Indiana Monday night.
City receives more than 700 requests for tree cleanup post-storm
The tornado, along with the storm system that brought it, caused significant damage to the city’s trees.
During Tuesday’s Naperville City Council meeting, Naperville’s Director of Public Works Dick Dublinski said the city received “over 700 requests” for help with tree cleanup on Tuesday. Dublinski detailed that of the city’s 70,000 trees, 10,000 lost limbs during the storm.
“We had multiple (tree) limbs down, about 50% of those were in people’s backyards, so 50% of those were our parkway trees,” said Dublinski. “We still have some partial blockage in roads.”
The city of Naperville’s website has a map of impacted streets and intersections to check before you head out on the road.
Free yard waste collection
To accelerate the cleanup, Naperville has partnered with the city’s residential garbage and recycling services contractor, Groot, to provide a free yard waste collection.
“Residents can start putting their limbs out that are three inches or smaller in four-foot sections, just like they regularly do,” said Dublinski. “No stamps are required. They can put them in bags or put them out and Groot will pick them up. Then our crews will chase their crews for bigger branches.”
According to Dublinski, the city hopes to have debris cleaned up “within a week.”
Heavy rain leads to flash flooding
Dublinski noted the city only received two calls for flooding Monday night after an inch of rain in the area. The majority of the rain, Dublinski said, came on Sunday night.
“(Sunday night), we had many calls, we had 2.75 inches of rain, which causes flash flooding,” Dublinski said. “We caught a couple (of) cars in low-depth areas.”
With nearly four inches of rain over two days, Dublinski detailed that the wall dam for the DuPage River is “working perfectly.”
“When they operate the dam when it gets too high, you’ll see the river go down and give us a chance to actually sandbag,” said Dublinski. “We are really prepared for flooding downtown and river flooding.”
“Not widespread damage we initially feared”
Dublinski said the city was “not made aware of any injuries” that came from the storm.
“Some residents and businesses had some limited damage (to personal property),” said Dublinski. “There was not the widespread damage that we had initially feared.”
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