CREST HILL, Ill. (CBS) — Murky, discolored water is coming out of faucets and spigots in homes in Crest Hill, and neighbors say it is a persistent problem.
Residents of the southwest suburb took their concerns to city leaders Wednesday.
Crest Hill resident Meg Kurowski has a line of containers around her kitchen— gallon jugs and empty boxed wine bags that she fills up at a friend’s home each week—because she doesn’t trust the water that comes out of her own tap.
“In this day and age where water comes to your house, why do I have to schlep water from here, there, and everywhere just so I can have drinking water?” Kurowski said.
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Kurowski is not alone in not trusting the water.
“What the heck is going on? Because I started seeing people posting pictures of like brown water coming out of their faucets,” she said, “and white water—I don’t even know what that is.”
Kurowski snapped photos of the green water that filled her tub on March 31 and April 1. Others sent their own photos and videos—including one showing cloudy water just last week.
Meg Kurowski
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CBS News Chicago talked to several Crest Hill city leaders for this story. None of them would go on camera, but they said the cloudy water is likely the result of recent hydrant flushing.
Kurowski was not reassured.
“What’s it been the rest of the year then?” she said. “What’s their excuse for the rest of the year?”
CBS News Chicago tool the City of Crest Hill’s most recent water report, from last year, to Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards.
“It had elevated levels of copper in it, which is in itself a significant human health concern,” Edwards said. “But the utility should be taking action to try to reduce the corrosivity of the drinking water according to the EPA lead and copper rule provisions.”
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Edwards, who previously worked on the Flint, Michigan water crisis, said those elevated copper levels are likely to blame for Kurowski’s green water. He said residents are right to be cautious
Crest Hill uses a well system, and acknowledges that Will County has “hard water” with high mineral levels. Crest Hill is scheduled to transition to Lake Michigan-sourced water in 2030.
Meanwhile, Kurowski said her days of schlepping water for herself and her dogs is ending soon. She’s moving to Tennessee.
Illinois has seen more tornadoes in 2026 than in any year on record.
Following several more tornadoes confirmed this week across the state, Illinois has recorded 143 tornadoes so far in 2026, beating the previous record of 142 tornadoes set in 2024. With reliable records dating back to 1950, Illinois averages just 54 tornadoes per year. But in recent years, the state has experienced many more:
2023: 121
2024: 142
2025: 126
2026: 143 and counting
Unlike 2024, when a record two-day tornado outbreak accounted for a large share of the year’s tornadoes, the activity in 2026 has been spread out across several months.
On Thursday, June 11, a tornado outbreak brought at least 21 confirmed tornadoes to northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, 13 of them in Illinois. Two tornadoes that day — in Streator, Illinois, and Hebron, Indiana — reached rare EF-3 intensity, with winds over 135 miles per hour. Numerous injuries were reported from the storms, but there were no fatalities.
Confirmed tornadoes from June 11:
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Long Point to Streator, IL: EF-3
Wenona/Osage Township, IL: EF-1
Graymont to Dwight, IL: EF-1
Lee, IL: EF-U
Harpster to Elliott, IL: EF-0
Pembroke Township (Leesville), IL: EF-U
St. John to Schererville, IN: EF-0
Paxton/Loda, IL: EF-1
Merrillville to Hobart, IN: EF-2
Ludlow, IL: EF-1
Cedar Lake, IN: EF-0
Schneider to Hebron, IN: EF-0
Watseka, IL: EF-0
Hebron to Kouts, IN: EF-3
Wellington/Prairie Green Township, IL: EF-1
Bartlett, IL: EF-1
Boswell to Atkinson, IN: EF-1
Ade to Mount Ayr, IN: EF-0
Naperville to Lisle, IL: EF-0
Hickory Hills to Garfield Ridge: EF-2
Morocco, IN: EF-0
Though most of the Chicago area dodged severe weather from storms this week, the National Weather Service confirmed a brief tornado touchdown Wednesday night in Lake County near Grayslake. The EF-0 tornado had estimated winds of 80 miles per hour and was on the ground for about a quarter-mile. Damage consisted of several downed or split trees and sporadic minor roof damage along a narrow corridor in the Saddlebrook Farms subdivision.
Four more tornadoes were confirmed Wednesday in western and central Illinois. NWS crews are still surveying damage in central Illinois, and more tornadoes may be added to the count in the coming days.
With 143 tornadoes so far this year, Illinois leads the nation in tornado count for the third time in the last four years — a remarkable statistic for a state not typically thought of as being in Tornado Alley.
The recent increase in tornado activity across Illinois and the Midwest fits research showing a shift in tornado-favorable environments away from parts of the traditional Plains Tornado Alley and farther east into the Midwest and South. Climate change is one likely factor, as warming temperatures are expected to make the Plains hotter and drier overall, shifting tornado ingredients eastward toward the Mississippi River.
BEECHER CITY, Ill. (WAND) – Farms were damaged in Effingham County Wednesday evening when a powerful storm swept through at around 8 p.m.
The McKay Farm in Beecher City was heavily damaged when the rapidly moving storm hit.
“Two buildings were totally destroyed,” Dan McKay told WAND News on Thursday. “We’ve got five grain bins and they’re all damaged.”
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The buildings collapsed onto farm equipment and a semi that were parked in the structures. A utility pole was snapped and ripped out of the ground.
In nearby Shumway, another farm was hit. A barn collapsed, with a grain bin being ripped apart and debris traveling several hundred feet through a nearby corn field. A house on the property was also damaged.
