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CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman, Rafael Romo, Susan Carlson and Kris Habermehl contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Some Chicago area residents were in the midst of a painstaking cleanup process, while others were waiting for their power to come back, in the aftermath of the wicked storms that hit the area last night.

As CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman reports, in southwest suburban Hickory Hills, branch piles stood several feet tall as crews worked to clear away tree limbs.

The damage was extensive to residential areas there. Along 97th Place in Hickory Hills, there were rooftops that had crashed down onto patios, pools that had been left unusable by fallen tree limbs. For some, tree limbs were also inside.

Resident Mary Sexton said it all began with "a pounding, a terrible pounding on the roof." A branch came through the room where Sexton was not sleeping.

Elsewhere, a nearby industrial park was hit hard, and at Conrady Junior High, roofing material blew off the school and ended up on top of a custodial van with two people inside. They were both treated and released from area hospitals.

"No school today," an official said.

Many residents were amazed no one was more seriously hurt, but they were inconvenienced. No power meant no traffic signals, and that combined with water and wires in the roadways made for a frustrating commute.

Residential flooding also caused serious problems.

"It flooded all the basements and everything else out here, there's branches all over, quite a mess," said resident Joe Maiberger.

Damage was also seen on the South Side of Chicago, where power outages were creating a great annoyance for some residents.

As of 9:10 a.m., a total of 164,000 ComEd customers were without power. Those included 60,000 within the city, 80,000 in the southern suburbs, 23,000 in the northern suburbs, and 800 in the western suburbs, officials said. At the peak of the storm 228,000 customers were without power.

During the Monday night storms, "The house started shaking, and I noticed the wind was really high; then all of sudden I heard a very loud noise, like somebody kicked in the door," said Brenda Williams of South Shore.

The sound actually came from a huge tree that fell on Williams' backyard during the storms. Luckily, the branches only slightly damaged the Williams' family car, but it could have been much worse.

"It's not if, it's when," said Howard Williams. "Somebody is going to get seriously hurt with this. We called the city about this tree before and told them it was dying, but it's on their property and we can't do anything about it."

Only minutes after the tree fell, the power went out. And by late morning their whole block was without power.

Harry Armstrong is in charge of a 12-unit condo building that also lost power during one of the thunderstorms.

"The wind came up and blew my storm windows off my front, of the windows, the storm windows off, and the windows were shaking like that," Armstrong said.

Large portions of the city were littered with fallen trees and trash bins that were toppled over by the heavy winds. But the most pressing need was restoring power.

"We called last night and told them about the outage – (called) ComEd, called the city," Howard Williams said. "We called again this morning: unacceptable. They said 4 o'clock possibly tomorrow."

Flooding was a serious problem elsewhere. At Route 53 near Butterfield Road in Lisle, the road was flooded to the point where it resembled a river. That part of Route 53 is along the western edge of the Morton Arboretum.

At 95th Street and Harlem Avenue, flooding closed the road, but some drivers kept going. They ended up stuck in the mud, or in some cases, submerged.

Flooding in the basement of Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood forced the hospital to cancel elective surgeries.

Meanwhile, numerous schools were closed. Mt. Carmel High School in the Woodlawn neighborhood was among the schools that were closed, but to the west in the Englewood neighborhood, school was held anyway at Harper High School despite a lack of power. Some reports indicated that students were becoming disorderly in the hallways.

In the city of Chicago alone, the Department of Streets and Sanitation reported 1,842 tree emergencies -- including damage to trees in the public way, limbs, and branches -- 151 traffic signals out, 64 light poles damaged, and 95 city wires damaged as of around 10 a.m.

Severe Flooding On Edens Expressway
Meanwhile in the northern suburbs, CBS 2's Rafael Romo reported the Edens Expressway was flooded, leaving many vehicles disabled and many motorists trapped by water. Some semi-trucks even had trouble crossing flooded areas.

In some places, water was reported at 6 to 8 feet deep in some places. Some drivers turned around and went the wrong way on the expressway.

"The traffic's been backed up – we got on the highway from Dundee two hours ago," driver Michelle Levitt said earlier on the Edens. "Dundee Road was completely flooded."

By 5 a.m., most vehicles had been taken off the expressway, but fog was increasing and causing treacherous conditions.

The weather also caused traffic accidents and other problems. On the Eisenhower Expressway at Kostner Avenue, a truck lost control and ended up on the Blue Line tracks in the center of the highway just before midnight. No serious injuries were reported.

In Arlington Heights, resident Cheryl Lardner reported "the street was like a river" when rain fell.

"The water was just pooling down and all the traffic was coming down here making the problem only extensively worse," Lardner added. "This is a busy, congested street as it is."

In the Lincoln Park neighborhood, a roof collapsed at a one-story vacant building at 910 W. Armitage Ave. around 10:30 p.m. Monday. The cause of the collapse was under investigation Tuesday morning, but weather was suspected.

High winds also tore up trees and flooded streets from Crest Hill to Joliet. Residents said it was an eventful night.

In Joliet, police said downed trees or power lines blocked many major streets.

Downed tree limbs line nearly every street. One homeowner said a tree that fell on her house rattled the kitchen cabinets off its hinges.

Another woman said she couldn't open her front door because of the wind and hail blowing in.

According to the National Weather Service, the heaviest rain fell in northern Cook and southern Lake counties, bounded by an area from Barrington to Mundelein to Deerfield to Wheeling to Arlington Heights, where two to three inches fell.

Hail of 1.75 inches was reported in some areas.

Unfortunately, we are not out of the woods. CBS 2's Ed Curran says we may see heavy storms again on Tuesday afternoon and evening.

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