SubX.News® Storm Report – June 11, 2026
Violent storms ripped across Chicago’s Southwest Side on the night of June 10, 2026, shredding trees, crushing cars, knocking out power, and leaving parts of McKinley Park and Brighton Park looking more like a disaster zone than a city neighborhood.
Hours after severe thunderstorms swept through the area, residents were still walking block to block surveying damage, moving branches, and checking on neighbors as city crews struggled to reopen streets clogged by fallen trees.
McKinley Park appeared to take some of the hardest hits.
By around 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., at least four to six residential blocks were fully or partially blocked by downed trees.
Multiple vehicles were heavily damaged or destroyed, and large sections of the neighborhood lost power.
Near 3626 S. Wolcott, a massive tree crashed onto a pickup truck, crushing the cab and punching through the roof.
“If he would have been in there, I don’t think he would’ve felt too good,” one neighbor said while looking at the wreckage.
A few blocks away, a large tree blocked both lanes of Wood Street near 36th and Wood, while another damaged a pickup truck near 3618 S. Hermitage.
The most dramatic scene unfolded near 34th and Paulina.
A huge tree was uprooted, tearing apart the sidewalk and parkway before crashing across the street and flattening a parked vehicle outside 3411 S. Paulina. The car was buried beneath the trunk and major limbs.
Neighbors said the owner had gotten out of the vehicle only moments before it was crushed.
No injuries were reported.
Farther west, near 3618 S. Hamilton, another large tree fell onto two parked vehicles, damaging both and forcing the block to close.
As the damage spread across the neighborhood, the lights began to go out.
Large sections of McKinley Park south of 35th Street lost power. Residents gathered on porches and sidewalks with flashlights and candles while dark traffic signals left intersections operating as four-way stops.
Some blocks remained partially lit, with one side of the street retaining power while the opposite side sat in darkness.
The destruction brought 11th Ward Ald. Nicole Lee into the neighborhood Wednesday night.
Lee walked damaged blocks, checked on residents, and said similar scenes were being reported throughout the ward.
“Everything can be replaced,” Lee said. “People are shaken up, but they’re alive. Cars and property we can fix.”
The storm also disrupted major transportation routes across the Southwest Side.
Blue Island Avenue west of Western was shut down after a large tree fell across all lanes, blocking one of the neighborhood’s primary diagonal corridors.
California Avenue near 42nd Street was temporarily closed after another tree collapsed into the roadway. By approximately 10:25 p.m., city crews had cut the tree into sections and reopened the street.
Storm damage extended into Brighton Park.
Near Kelly High School, around 4150 S. Fairfield, a utility pole was pulled from the ground after a nearby tree came down. Power lines sagged across an alley while officers blocked access to protect residents from potentially energized wires.
Additional reports of fallen branches and damaged trees surfaced throughout the neighborhood.
Elsewhere on the Southwest Side, a large tree crushed a parked vehicle near 26th and Shields in Chinatown, while another mature tree came down near 37th and Wabash, completely blocking the street.
The storm also exposed recurring infrastructure problems.
At the northbound Dan Ryan exit to Canalport and Cermak, dispatch traffic reported the ramp completely flooded shortly after 6:15 p.m.
Vehicles attempting to escape the rising water reportedly backed up the ramp and reversed toward the expressway.
Video from the scene showed the low point of the ramp underwater, the same location that flooded during storms on May 18.
By early Thursday morning, residents across McKinley Park and Brighton Park were still waking up to blocked streets, damaged vehicles, scattered debris, and lingering power outages.
Despite widespread destruction that included crushed vehicles, blocked roads, uprooted trees, downed power lines, and a utility pole ripped from the ground, no serious injuries or fatalities were reported at the Southwest Side locations observed Wednesday night.
The neighborhood damage was part of a much larger regional storm event.
Power outages affected hundreds of thousands of customers across northern Illinois.
City crews responded to thousands of tree-related emergency calls, while severe weather disrupted air travel and damaged property throughout the Chicago area.
Forecasters warned that additional rounds of severe weather remain possible, with another period of strong storms expected Thursday afternoon and evening.
