A woman was struck by lightning in the southwest suburbs as thunderstorms that  dumped heavy rainfall across Chicago on Thursday.

Police said that the 34 years old woman was walking southbound in the 300 block of Janes Avenue in Bolingbrook at 2 PM while she was struck by the lightning.

Jim White, who helped the victim informed, "Her whole side of her face was burnt. Her blouse had a line in it that was burnt and almost disintegrated. She was gushing blood from her ear. I was like, she's gotta be dead. Gotta be dead. All of a sudden I saw one breath, and that was like 30 seconds after we got there.” Ali Shah, another one who helped the victim, said "I am shaking. I am shaking. My mind is upset,". Neighbors started CPR while on the phone with emergency dispatchers. Police said that the Berwyn woman suffered severe burns.

She was rushed to a local hospital in serious condition. Shah said, "I pray for the young lady. My god," .

Minor flooding was reported in Chicago's South Side and several south suburbs, including Darien and Calumet City.

The storms also created inconvenience at the city's airports. More than 265 flights had been canceled at O'Hare and nearly 45 flights were canceled at Midway. Delays of more than two hours were reported at O'Hare.

At 4:45 PM, ComEd reported that more than 1,000 customers were without power across Cook, DuPage and Will counties. ComEd officials informed that they were not sure if the outages were related to storms or heat.

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By Prakriti Neogi