Wind Gusts Rip Off Dugout Roof, Knock Down Fences, Trees

Tammy Hultman's 12-year-old son thought the dark storm clouds moving across the Tinley Park sky early Monday evening looked cool as he sat in the dugout at the Fulton Elementary School's baseball field. 

But that feeling faded quickly and turned to fear as powerful wind gusts swept across the field where the boy and others were participating in all-star tryouts for the Tinley Park Bulldogs baseball team. 

"He said he thought it was a tornado with the dirt kicking up," Hultman told Patch. "[Her son and the other players] couldn't see anything."

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While it wasn't a tornado, the wind from the severe thunderstorm that swept across Tinley Park and the south suburbs Monday, June 24, was strong enough to tear the roof completely off of the dugout and send it flying into the school's parking lot.

That's where it landed on the roof of Hultman's husband's car, where their 7-year-old son was sitting. Although scared, he wasn't hurt, Hultman said. In fact, no one was injured at the school or anywhere else in the village during the storm. 

But Monday's storm wasn't as forgiving to trees and other structures around the Tinley Park, scattering branches and other debris across village streets and leaving thousands without power. Crews from the Public Works Department were out Monday night beginning the clean-up effort, a village press release stated. 

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Kathy Holetzky was with her husband and a car dealership on 159th Street when she felt the temperature drop about 20 degrees and the sky darken.

"I am not good with storms," she said. "I told my husband, 'Let's go home'."

Home is at the corner of 80th and Champlain avenues. When they arrived, most of couple's backyard, fiberglass fence, which faces 80th Avenue, had been blown down. Shingles had been torn off their roof, as well, and the tree in the parkway in front of their home had been snapped in two, the top of it splayed along the eastbound lane of Champlain that pours out onto 80th Avenue. (Watch the video in this article.)

But that was nothing compared to some of the damage the storm did to their neighbors' property, Holetzky said. 

A large patch of shingles from the roof of the Holetzkys' next-door neighbor had been blown off, and another neighbor found his heavy, wrought-iron table pushed two houses down from where he lived, Holetzky said. One neighbor a few houses down also had his fence knocked over, and his backyard cabana was completely leveled. 

YOUR TURN: How bad did the storm damage the homes and property in your neighborhood? Tell us in the comments section and share your photos and video on the Announcements Board or on the Tinley Park Patch Facebook page.