Hundreds of flights were canceled and 1,500 homes were left without power as severe thunderstorms tore through the Chicago area Wednesday.A mix of showers, hail and gusty winds pelted much of the area for most of the day Wednesday, though most of the rain had eased off in the evening. The National W eather Service recorded 1.23 inches of rain at O'Hare Airport and 1.83 inches at Midway Airport.The downpours prompted the City of Chicago to issue a flood advisory, but it was canceled at 4:45 p.m.About 1,500 flights were delayed and 395 were canceled at O'Hare and Midway airports as of 8 p.m., according to FlightAware. A ground delay went into effect around 5 a.m. at O'Hare and was in effect until 9:59 p.m. due to the storms, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The average delay at O'Hare was about two hours. Ground delays are issued to control air traffic volume to airports where the projected traffic demand is expected to exceed the airport's acceptance rate for a lengthy period of time, according to the FAA. The situation is normally a result of weather-related issues. Pedestrians walk in the rain in Auburn Gresham Wednesday. Pat Nabong/Sun-Times Over 1,500 ComEd customers in the Chicago area were without power Wednesday morning, according to a ComEd outage map. Roughly 200 Chicago customers were affected by the outages, while nearly 1,000 customers were affected in the southern suburbs, including South Holland, Calumet City, Tinley Park and Chicago Ridge. Power had been restored at the majority of homes by Wednesday evening. Between 5 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, state troopers responded to 22 property crashes, 10 injury crashes and 10 motor assists on various expressways, Illinois State Police said.Flooding was reported in the westbound lanes of Interstate 80 west of the Stevenson Expressway, where the right lane was completely covered in water, state police said. A pedestrian crosses a partially flooded South Peoria Street in Auburn Gresham Wednesday.Pat Nabong/Sun-Times Earlier in the day, tornadoes were possible, the weather service said, but the odds “decreased significantly” by Wednesday afternoon, according to Gino Izzi, a meteorologist with the weather service."Mother Nature is starting to tip her hand, and it's looking increasingly likely that we're not going to get the fuel needed for the tornado-potential type thunderstorms," Izzi said.Thursday was forecast to be mostly sunny, with highs in the 50s, with a chance of light rain, weather officials said.Another round of showers and thunderstorms is forecast for Friday afternoon and could last through the evening. ...read more read less