(Photo courtesy, Kankakee Valley REMC Facebook page)
(Photo courtesy Indiana Dunes State Park Facebook page)
Cleanup is underway after severe weather hit northwest Indiana and the Chicago area. Storms swept through the region Monday July 27, 2026, resulting in damaged homes and downed trees. The National Weather Service Chicago said at their website that “intense severe thunderstorms” yesterday resulted in “several probable tornado paths” and areas of “extensive significant straight line wind damage” and survey crews would be heading out to some of the hardest hit areas to conduct ground assessments. Here is a link to the National Weather Service Chicago recap of Monday’s severe weather – https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1479695227520636&set=a.301009895389181 .
The National Weather Service Chicago this morning said there are areas of potential tornado damage in northwest Indiana from Monday’s (July 27 2026) storms they don’t have much information on yet. They include southeast Cook County, Illinois, across the state line into Lake County, eastern Lake County across northwest Porter County, and southern Porter County to the LaPorte County border area. They said the public can help by sending information and photos or videos – there’s more information at the National Weather Service Chicago Facebook page.
Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) says two rounds of storms Monday, first in the afternoon and then in the early evening, impacted a total of about 61,000 customers across its service area; about 18-thousand customers were without power early this morning. Here is a link for updates – https://www.nipsco.com/outages/power-outages . An outage update from Kankakee Valley REMC last night 10:30 pm said they were down to about 1,500 members without power. KV REMC said areas north of U.S. 30 and into Jackson Township, north and south of U.S. 6 sustained extensive damage, including at least 20 broken poles, numerous trees and downed lines. In Illinois, hundreds of thousands of ComEd customers were left without power. Hundreds of flights at both O’Hare and Midway airports were canceled.
In Illinois, reports say multiple homes in Lansing had their roofs ripped off and one home partially collapsed. A park district building in Crete was severely damaged when a tree crashed through the roof, collapsing a wall.
In Chesterton, the town’s Facebook page said the Park Superintendent was reporting significant damage at Chesterton Park on Morgan Avenue and also some damage at Thomas Centennial Park downtown. On Facebook today, the Chesterton Parks and Recreation Department said several of the town’s parks “were hit hard by yesterday’s storms,” especially Chesterton Park, and they are continuing to evaluate the damage as cleanup efforts are underway.
This morning Indiana Dunes State Park said it is without power at all locations after severe storms that hit much of northwest Indiana Monday, July 27, 2026. The state park also said at this time, several roads in the park were impassable due to fallen trees. Park crews worked into the evening hours last night and are back out this morning continuing storm cleanup. Indiana Dunes State Park said the park Nature Center and Dunes Gift Shop will be closed today, Tuesday, July 28, 2026, there will be limited access to restrooms, and as of this morning they said they did not have an update on trail access at this time.
In Hammond, the city says the fuel dock at the Hammond Marina was closed Monday afternoon due to a lightning strike. The Hammond Fire Department responded to inspect the dock as a precaution and confirmed everything is safe, the city said at its Facebook page.
In the southwest suburbs, the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, this morning (Tue Jul 28) said it would be closed today out of an abundance of caution due to storm-related power outages in the area and for storm damage cleanup operations.
