Hail, High Winds Pummel Parts Of Illinois

The National Weather Service issued severe weather watches for much of the state, including tornado warnings in several southern and central Illinois counties.

The Bond County sheriff's office reported to the weather service that a tornado may have touched down near Beaver Creek, knocking down tree branches and power lines but not causing any injuries, a spokesman said.

About 20 miles away, in Fayette County, authorities reported an unconfirmed touchdown around 5:30 p.m., although the sheriff's office there also said there was no major damage or injuries.

The weather service also reported golf ball-sized hail on the east side of Lake Decatur and in Franklin County.

A sudden downpour belted downtown Chicago Thursday just as people left work for the evening, sending commuters scurrying into buildings to avoid strong winds, hail and horizontal rain.

An 11-year-old boy was in stable condition after being struck by lightning on the city's southwest side, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

Planes traveling in and out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport averaged delays of up to two hours, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. More than 40 flights were delayed up to two hours at Midway Airport.

Neither airport reported major cancellations, aviation officials said.

Some early morning storms knocked out power for nearly 13,000 Ameren customers in southern Illinois, forcing some schools to close in Murphysboro, Johnston City and Carbondale. Power to most of those customers had been restored by the evening, officials said.

The evening storms disrupted power for another 2,670 customers, mostly around Decatur, Ameren said.

About 4,400 ComEd customers lost power in the later storms, said ComEd spokesman John Dewey. About half of the outages were in Chicago, with the rest around Joliet and scattered around the rest of the company's service area.