Storm Aftermath: What Crystal Lake, Cary Residents Need To Know

CRYSTAL LAKE AND CARY, IL — The good news is that the heat and the bulk of severe weather appears to be mostly behind us.

But the bad news is that hundreds remained without power as of Thursday afternoon and many residents in Crystal Lake and Cary are now tasked with cleaning up following this week's severe weather. It's unclear exactly how many residents in both towns are still dealing with power outages—as of late Thursday morning, the Crystal Lake Police Department reported 23,000 people without power in the city but ComEd's power outage map indicated a much smaller number, around 420 in both towns.

MORE FROM PATCH

• Thousands Still Without Power In McHenry County Thursday
• Storms Uproot Trees, Knock Out Power In McHenry Monday

Many businesses had power knocked out and were forced to close following the storms. Those closures remained in place for much of Thursday for many places, including the Sage YMCA.

As of early Thursday afternoon, power was restored at the YMCA, which officially reopened its doors to the public at 3 p.m. Residents still may want to check to make sure a business is open before they head out.

The storm also caused traffic issues due to malfunctioning traffic lights, including at least along Route 14 that weren't working.

Both the storms on Monday and Tuesday brought 60 mph wind gusts to the area, and on Monday, an EF-1 tornado touched down in McHenry.

No injuries or deaths have been reported.

Clean Up: Special Brush Pickup Planned, Public Works Crews Stay Busy

Police departments and fire departments in Crystal Lake and Cary were dispatched to dozens of calls and public works crews have been working to pull downed trees from roadways.

Here's what you will need to know if you would like to have brush picked up curbside in the coming days.

Cary

In Cary, public works employees will start picking up post-storm brush placed out at the curb on Monday.

The brush must be from this past week's storm events, the minimum length of the branches is four feet and the diameter must be between 2 to 8 inches; and the volume of the brush can not be more than eight-feet long by four-feet wide or what would fit in the back of a standard pick-up truck. The cut ends of the brush should be facing the street and no thorny materials or root balls should be placed out at the curb.

For larger piles of brush, village employees can provide a quoted price at a nominal fee once everything else has been picked up.

In addition, Flood Brothers offers weekly curbside brush pickup in Cary on residents' assigned garbage collection day if it is bundled and less than four feet long.

Crystal Lake

In Crystal Lake, residents should call the city's public works department at 815-356-3615 to request a pick up after they've placed their yard waste out by the road, according to the Northwest Herald. The brush should be set out by Sunday, and public works crews are expected to start picking up the waste early next week.

The portion of the city east of McHenry Avenue was hit particularly hard by the storm, city officials told the Northwest Herald.

A Break From The Heat

A heat advisory remains in effect Thursday but then we should get a reprieve.

Cooler and less humid weather will settle in this weekend. A few storms will move south of I-80 Friday as the cold front completes its push southeast, but many areas will stay dry. Flow behind the front will support a daily lake breezes. #ilwx #inwx pic.twitter.com/5CRy93bI05
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) August" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/NWSChicago... 12, 2021

For those who need to utilize a cooling center, here is a roundup of locations in McHenry County.