Storm causes road flooding in Chicagoland

CHICAGO, July 24 (UPI) -- Transportation officials in the Chicago area closed roads and halted public transit early Saturday as heavy rains blew through the southern Great Lakes region.

The Illinois Department of Transportation said the busy Eisenhower Expressway had to be shut down for a time around dawn and counted as many as eight cars stuck in flood waters.

The Chicago Transit Authority had to re-route some of its bus lines and either halted or slowed down trains on the Blue and Pink lines due to flooding on the tracks.

The bulk of the storm moved into West Michigan by late Saturday morning. The Detroit Free Press said 2 inches of rain was expected in some areas and as many as 10,000 people had already lost power in the Detroit area.

The heavy weather roared through as Milwaukee was still recovering from a line of powerful storms that hit Thursday. A state of emergency was declared in Milwaukee County Friday and damage was estimated at nearly $29 million, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The newspaper said Saturday that while no lives were lost, two people were injured by lightning and scores of residents were left with flooded basements while a massive sinkhole swallowed up a Cadillac Escalade.

"I think it's reasonable to call it a 100-year storm, and maybe a bit more unusual than that," said John Young, Wisconsin's state climatologist.