HOMEWOOD (WBBM Newsradio) -- When high winds and heavy rains swept onto Heather Road, Tony Ferracane knew he was in for a long day.
"I take sewer duty," said the Homewood resident Tuesday afternoon as he took a break from what's become a familiar ritual in his south suburban neighborhood: raking leaves and other debris away from storm sewers to bring down water that flooded a section of the road in his subdivision just a few hours earlier.
Homewood resident Tony Ferracane uses a rake to clear storm drains on a flooded street in his neighborhood.
Geoff Buchholz - WBBM Newsradio
"When this happens, we all pitch in and try to do what we can," Ferracane said, as he stood on a flooded sidewalk recalling the numerous storms that have roiled the south suburbs this summer: "The rain's just been unbelievable. It's been pretty rough for a lot of people around here."
Tuesday morning's wave of severe weather brought wind gusts as high as 80 to 100 miles per hour to parts of the south suburbs. The National Weather Service is now working to confirm whether a tornado caused some of the damage in the area. There have been no reports of serious injuries from the storm, which comes just two weeks after a similar weather system brought down trees and power lines in Homewood and surrounding areas.
Just up the hill from where Ferracane was raking, a downed tree blocked part of Heather Road, but it wasn't enough to keep cars and minivans from trying to drive through the area.
As Ferracane worked to clear storm drains, neighbor Debbie Huggett pulled into her driveway on Heather Road, saying the rain came in "sideways."
"Oh, this isn't as bad," Huggett said, referring to the flooding at the end of her block. "The last couple of storms, it was up in my driveway."
However, water gushed from an overloaded storm sewer cover on the parkway next to her driveway, a phenomenon she said was not uncommon: "Lord knows what's in that water!" she laughed.
Tony Ferracane's hip waders were protecting him from exposure to that water as he worked to clear the drains - and the road. He said he was expecting reinforcements to arrive soon, as part of a ritual that's gotten a lot of use this season.
"My neighbor down the street will probably show up in a little bit - and we'll take it from there," he said.
