COUNTRYSIDE (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Cleanup continued around Chicagoland after tornadoes and severe storms ripped through on Wednesday night. Among the areas left with damage: southwest suburban Countryside.
Marion Novak’s one-story brick house — located on Hillsdale Road just west of Willow Springs Road — probably had the worst damage in the neighborhood. She’s lived there since 1979 and was home when the storm hit. She missed being injured, or worse, by seconds.
“I started going toward my dining area, and I saw everything blow, and I thought, ‘I better stay away from that window,’” Novak said. “By the time I moved to the living room, not just the roof, but the ceiling came down with, like, my ceiling fan. The ceiling came down.”
Greg Timpe, meanwhile, anticipated having to spend the day dealing with his insurance company. A massive pine tree, uprooted by the storm, was resting against his house.
“Probably over 100 years old,” Timpe said. “It’s a shame. It’s my wife’s grandparents’ old house, too, so this house has been in the family for quite some time. We have pictures ever since it was, like, 10 feet tall, and now it’s probably about 80 feet tall.”
He said that they didn’t hear any loud crashes or bangs when it happened.
“We thought maybe we lost a couple of branches, and then I started walking up the steps and I could smell the … pine scent,” he said. “We walked outside, and I saw the tree was on top of our house.”
Timpe said he’s just happy no one in his family or any of his neighbors was injured.
Debbie Taylor watched as a tree crew ground up branches of a tree that had blown over to her 95-year old mother’s property. Taylor said her mother’s house had broken windows and gutter damage.
“It’s crazy,” she said. “I mean, I got a call that the tornado hit my mom’s house. I’m like, ‘Really?’ So, all the windows are broken, trees uprooted. Just insane … she’s OK.”
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