IL

Storm restoration across Kendall County

Kendall County sits in the heart of northern Illinois's severe weather corridor, where it has sustained some of the state's most destructive storms: the August 28, 1990 F-5 Plainfield tornado touched down near Oswego in Kendall County, killed 29 people, and destroyed or damaged over 1,400 homes along a 16-mile path, while Minooka recorded the former Illinois state record hailstone at 4.75 inches in June 2015 and confirmed EF-1 tornadoes struck Yorkville, Oswego, and Plattville in subsequent years. Supercell thunderstorms tracking along the I-80 corridor routinely produce golf-ball to baseball-sized hail, 70-plus mph straight-line winds, and derechos that strip roofing, siding, and gutters across the county's growing residential subdivisions. Flash flooding is a recurring hazard - a single September 2019 storm dropped over five inches of rain near Plainfield, closed I-80 near Minooka, and overwhelmed sump pumps and sewer systems throughout low-lying neighborhoods. Winter brings additional roof stress from heavy wet snow loads and ice damming on freeze-thaw cycles, with January lows averaging near 10°F and periodic ice storms that compound structural damage already initiated by autumn hail events.