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West Suburbs Cleaning Up Fallen Trees After Powerful Storm

Berwyn Tree
A 40-foot maple tree toppled during a fast-moving, hard-hitting thunderstorm on June 24, 2013, damaging two homes in Berwyn. (Credit: Bernie Tafoya)
Berwyn Tree
A 40-foot maple tree toppled during a fast-moving, hard-hitting thunderstorm on June 24, 2013, damaging two homes in Berwyn. (Credit: Bernie Tafoya)
Berwyn Tree
A 40-foot maple tree toppled during a fast-moving, hard-hitting thunderstorm on June 24, 2013, damaging two homes in Berwyn. (Credit: Bernie Tafoya)
Berwyn Tree
A 40-foot maple tree toppled during a fast-moving, hard-hitting thunderstorm on June 24, 2013, damaging two homes in Berwyn. (Credit: Bernie Tafoya)

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Parts of the western suburbs were still cleaning up Tuesday afternoon, after a fast-moving, hard-hitting storm uprooted trees as it blew through the area.

WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports a maple tree nearly 40 feet tall tipped over, roots and all, onto a pair of brick bungalows at 38th and Grove in Berwyn. It even pulled up a huge section of grass and soil.

Storm Knocks Down Trees In Western Burbs

A six-year-old girl who lives in one of the homes recalled hearing the tree hit the house.

"When it was windy, we heard a big thump, so my mom grabbed me and my sister on the hand, and then took me to the corner," she said. "I went to go see, and I see the whole tree down, and part of our house got broken."

The fallen tree caused visible damage to the roofs of both houses.

Jackie Hall, who lives a few doors down from where it happened, said "it sounds like a dry crack. You know, when you crack a big piece of wood? But it was after the wind, it was not on the time of the wind. Like five minutes after."

Luckily no one was injured.

Power was out all last night and into this morning in parts of Berwyn and neighboring Stickney.

Yellow barricade tape blocked off alleys where electric lines had come down, and crews were out cutting down damaged tree limbs to prevent them from falling on power lines and causing more problems.

In all, about 300,000 homes and businesses were left without power yesterday, due to the storm. The vast majority of those customers had service restored by Tuesday afternoon, but there were still tens of thousands waiting for repairs.

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