ComEd: 30,700 customers still without power after severe storms

CHICAGO (WLS) -- ComEd crews are working around the clock to restore power to customers in the Chicago area. As of Wednesday night, about 30,7000 in Illinois are still in the dark, ComEd said. About 30,000 of the outages are in the south suburbs.

NIPSCO said on Wednesday night that 18,500 customers are still without power in Northwest Indiana, mostly in Lake and Porter counties.

The clean-up is far from over in south suburban Midlothian. Poles and trees fell on top of each other, causing damage to homes and leaving many without power. Though power has been restored to 80 percent of Chicago-area residents, some service is taking longer to restore due to fallen trees.

"From what I understood, they're going to put new poles, new transformer, run new wires," said Paul Chismundy, a Midlothian resident. "I'm hoping to get power back tomorrow."

Chismudy is surviving with a small generator.

"We've been here for 33 years, we've never had anything like this," said Donald Ziemann, a Midlothian resident.

Many residents stood by and watched crews working around the clock.

"Can't watch TV, got to talk to each other, it's different," said Camilo Novoa, a Midlothian resident. "It's crazy, can't charge my cell phone."

"It does take some time, but 36 hours into the storm, something of this magnitude, and we have 80 percent of customers restored," said Fidel Marquez, ComEd spokesperson.

In south suburban Dolton, police and fire went door-to-door to check on residents without power. Many still are waiting.

"It is what it is, we are making the best of it," said Nick Duprie, a Dolton resident. "We have generators, making do with what we got."

Back in Midlothian, the power cannot come on fast enough for Wayne Bush, the owner of Midlothian Vacuum. He is staying open in the dark, just in case a customer can pay with a check or exact change.

"I made a little yesterday, today $3, I've got to make $250-$300 a day to stay open, so it's a long way off," Bush said.

ComEd hopes to have most service back on by Thursday night, though some many not be restored until Friday. Out-of-state crews from nine other states arrived Wednesday to help.

ComEd officials said Monday's severe storms caused the worst damage they have seen since 2011. On Wednesday, the National Weather Service classified the storms as two separate derechos, or powerful storm clusters that can produce intense wind damage and tornadoes for 250 miles or more during their lifespan.

At the height of the outages, about 400,000 customers were affected.