https://twitter.com/IslesofErin/status/757368512126083073
Watch the video. It almost looks like something you would see in a movie. Explosions and arcs everywhere then BOOM. Any idea how this could happen? I can't understand what could cause this. It looked like it was a tunnel and those were lights exploding inside. Possible violent EOLED?

Arcs can be really high power, and transformers could fail causing more effects.

I think I know what happened here, a feeder line probably fell onto a line feeding the building. Resulting in the major wiring overload but yes, that IS scary!

I don't know about CTA, but I know on the NYC Subway, the emergency lights run off 3rd rail voltage.

It's also possible as things came down that the lighting circuits ended up being charged with 3rd rail voltage.

Remember a video on YouTube awhile back-shows a substation near Miami Florida burning-Substation was destroyed.The transformer was arcing badly-oil spilled out of the transformer and caught fire-contributed to the mess.A fuse blew upstream of the station and it still continued to burn.While it was arcing--like the video just shown--THE ARC WELDER FROM HELL!!!Fireman and power company linemen where on that Miami station fire-the Firemen say--"We stay away from their wires!"-the Linemen said-"We stay away from their Fires!"

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thestar.com/amp/news/world/2016/07/25/lightning-blamed-for-chicago-train-shelter-collapse.html#
We got this same storm system. I caught some close lightning strikes. Things got a bit dicey, 60 mph wind and 4.5 inches of rain in 1 hour!
https://instagram.com/p/BIRH7PaAPLg/
https://instagram.com/p/BIRb_7ngWKS/
The natl weather service didn't classify it as severe, even tho it trumped (not Don) the last severe rated storm. The tree across the street were bending at like a 60 degree angle with the wind!
Also caught the storm developing. It started out as a small green band, and the thing parked right over us and stayed for an hour. Bonus image of towering cumulonimbus cloud: https://instagram.com/p/BIUDYrJA5_b/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thestar.com/amp/news/world/2016/07/25/lightning-blamed-for-chicago-train-shelter-collapse.html#
We got this same storm system. I caught some close lightning strikes. Things got a bit dicey, 60 mph wind and 4.5 inches of rain in 1 hour!
https://instagram.com/p/BIRH7PaAPLg/
https://instagram.com/p/BIRb_7ngWKS/
The natl weather service didn't classify it as severe, even tho it trumped (not Don) the last severe rated storm. The tree across the street were bending at like a 60 degree angle with the wind!
Also caught the storm developing. It started out as a small green band, and the thing parked right over us and stayed for an hour. Bonus image of towering cumulonimbus cloud: https://instagram.com/p/BIUDYrJA5_b/

We got the same storm here. Mind you, I get scared when it gets cloudy outside, so you can imagine how terrified I was... The wind was like 80mph (they said it on the news). It never got better, and eventually it was so bad you could barely see 5 feet out the window. Had I noticed that there was no tornado warning, I would have taken a video of it. (I was preparing to take all of my pets to the basement in case of a tornado) Well, after about 20 minutes it stopped and unfortunately the huge old tree in the yard lost some branches and my yardblaster's cover got cracked. The alley flooded and one of our cars also got totaled. Let's just say I hope there is never anything like that here again. Apparently it broke most records for worst severe storm...

Quote from: Solanaceae on July 26, 2016, 01:37:03 AM

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thestar.com/amp/news/world/2016/07/25/lightning-blamed-for-chicago-train-shelter-collapse.html#
We got this same storm system. I caught some close lightning strikes. Things got a bit dicey, 60 mph wind and 4.5 inches of rain in 1 hour!
https://instagram.com/p/BIRH7PaAPLg/
https://instagram.com/p/BIRb_7ngWKS/
The natl weather service didn't classify it as severe, even tho it trumped (not Don) the last severe rated storm. The tree across the street were bending at like a 60 degree angle with the wind!
Also caught the storm developing. It started out as a small green band, and the thing parked right over us and stayed for an hour. Bonus image of towering cumulonimbus cloud: https://instagram.com/p/BIUDYrJA5_b/

We got the same storm here. Mind you, I get scared when it gets cloudy outside, so you can imagine how terrified I was... The wind was like 80mph (they said it on the news). It never got better, and eventually it was so bad you could barely see 5 feet out the window. Had I noticed that there was no tornado warning, I would have taken a video of it. (I was preparing to take all of my pets to the basement in case of a tornado) Well, after about 20 minutes it stopped and unfortunately the huge old tree in the yard lost some branches and my yardblaster's cover got cracked. The alley flooded and one of our cars also got totaled. Let's just say I hope there is never anything like that here again. Apparently it broke most records for worst severe storm...

Most severe storm? Hurricanes here can be much worse, destroying entire buildings! Luckily we haven't had one for a while.
When we see big clouds, it's just another big thunderstorm.

Wow, do you have any news reports?

I can beat your storm too zar. On May 26, 2010, we had three fat supercells merge over us from different directions. They stayed stationary, dumping 5 or more inches in about two hours. The scary part. Coming home from skool on the bus we got cot in the rfd of the tornado that popped up in the field (quarter hail, 80 or more mph wind). It wouldn't have been too bad, but the buses don't handle well in the winds. The next day we went out inspecting and lots of trees were down, and the school roof was leaking in numerous places.

I can beat your storm too zar. On May 26, 2010, we had three fat supercells merge over us from different directions. They stayed stationary, dumping 5 or more inches in about two hours. The scary part. Coming home from skool on the bus we got cot in the rfd of the tornado that popped up in the field (quarter hail, 80 or more mph wind). It wouldn't have been too bad, but the buses don't handle well in the winds. The next day we went out inspecting and lots of trees were down, and the school roof was leaking in numerous places.

Here, there would have been lots of water from lakes everywhere, and loads of tall trees. Tornadoes are less common here, but Hurricanes can create a monumental amount of damage.
There aren't many news reports because Hurricanes are normal enough to not have big reports for each of them.

In the top video, she sounds to says, "OMG its on the track", is this some form of mono rail flashing over?