A storm complex like the one that moved through Chicago can have devastating effects, similar to a hurricane. It was a big-time 'bow-echo' before it got to Chicago. The weather has been acting oddly throughout the northern states this summer. Looks like a possible tornado outbreak or major wind event in the ohio valley tomorrow.
You went through Andrew? That must have been very intense, the eye wall was basically a 40 mile wide F3/F4 tornado. The US has been getting off lucky the past several years in regards to big canes (cat 4 or 5), the strongest have been hitting unpopulated areas. Alex whipped itself up quite fast last night, looks like we may have a very active August/September.
Thankfully, Andrew was a rare dry and very fast moving storm system. I was in the national guard then and the scary part was after the storm. Most of which never came to public light.