Illinois power outage: Over 20K in Chicago area remain without electricity after ice storm
Chicago weather forecast for Friday cold, blustery
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Thousands in the Chicago area are waking up for a second consecutive morning without power.
The storm brought down trees and power lines across McHenry and Lake counties.
ComEd crews are working to get power restored for over 23,000 households, mainly in the north suburbs, which saw ice on Wednesday.
ComEd said in a message on its website that 90% of impacted customers had their power restored by Friday morning.
The majority of customers are expected to have power back by Saturday evening, the energy company said.
ComEd has brought in additional crews from southern Illinois and Kentucky to help with the restoration.
Several schools were closed Thursday due to the weather.
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Mary Kopterski and her 13-year-old dog spent the night trying to stay warm as the temperature inside her house dropped to 50 degrees by morning.
"We were up until 3 in the morning trying to deal with everything," she said. She was about to leave for her daughter's house when her power was restored. "I hate that this happens every so often here. It's really hard. I've lost a lot of things because of this."
Some homeowners, like Hilary Draper in Lake Bluff, spent the night with no lights.
"Well, we had candles, and we had some flashlights, and that kind of thing and a little table lights that turn on electrically," Draper said.
On Thursday morning, homeowners were happy to see ComEd crews pull up, after Wednesday's winter weather coated everything in sheets of ice.
"Every tree had ice; every bush had ice. And they started coming down," said Blake Berube, who was helping his parents in Lake Bluff.
The power in parts of Lake Bluff went out at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, and, on Thursday morning, generators could be heard buzzing.
Sean Smith's family doesn't have one, so they tried to keep warm the old fashioned way.
"We've been hanging in there, dressing warmly, lots of blankets, so we're glad to see ComEd is here," Smith said.
On Thursday, Lake County thawed out, the thick coating of ice melting into puddles.
RELATED: Flight status: More than 1,400 flights canceled as winter storm hits US
Friday will be a cold, blustery day with a high of 28 degrees. A few flurries are possible Friday night.
Stick with ABC7Chicago.com and the ABC7 AccuWeather Team for the latest updates on the winter storm.
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