Hundreds still without power after Monday's storm

RIVERDALE, Ill. (WLS) -- Dinner by lamplight sounds romantic- but after four days the allure has worn off for Charlene and Hezzie Cooke. They and roughly 50 other Riverdale residents have been without power four for days.

ComEd said a few hundred customers remain without electricity since strong storms struck Monday.

"This is entirely too long," Gwen Samuels said. She and others on Clark near 139th Street are going to be throwing out a lot of food lost in freezers that couldn't freeze. Health issues are the main concern- expensive medicine that has to be kept cool and an inoperable C-pap machine for David Watkins, who also has a pacemaker.

ComEd has pushed back the timetable on restoring power several times. A spokesman said crews are still working, but the fix is complex and further complicated because the broken lines are on railroad property. Crews had to wait for the green light from the railroad to get to work.

"Frustrated," Hezzie Cooke said. "Very frustrated."

"There should be some type of communication among groups that you can go in when necessary," David Watkins said.

ComEd said there are easement agreements that give crews access, but near active railroads everyone has to be onboard with the plan.

"We don't know what the railroad schedules are. Is there a train coming? Are they moving cars? We need to be in contact with them to let them know what the situation is so we can get clearance. It's a safety issue," Fidel Marquez, ComEd senior vice president of governmental affairs, said.

Another safety issue came into play Friday when a ComEd worker was burned while working to restore service. He's OK, but crews had to stand down until they could determine what went wrong.