CHICAGO (AP) -- Severe weather cut power to over half a million people in the Chicago area and northwestern Indiana as perilous thunderstorms and extreme wind gusts pummeled the region Tuesday. We were down in the basement," Javid Jenkins in Homewood, a Chicago suburb, said. No roof," said Kerry Hourigan, standing outside her home of 25 years in the Chicago suburb of Tinley Park, Illinois. Lake and Porter counties in Indiana and Will County, Illinois, south of Chicago, were especially hit hard. Nearby in LaPorte County, Indiana, there is a "tremendous amount of tree damage," Commissioner Joe Haney said.