Local News

Thousands Still In Dark, Repairs Could Take Days

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The Chicago area was cleaning up plenty of damage left behind by Monday night's powerful thunderstorms and many homes and businesses were still without power Tuesday.

In the middle of the afternoon, it was pretty dark inside Bruce Kaminsky's Lincoln Park home. Candle lights were necessary because the power was out.

"No air conditioning, no lights, nothing," Kaminsky said. He was among the nearly 500,000 ComEd customers across the city and suburbs who lost power during Monday night's powerful storms.

With newly purchased lanterns, the Calpino family was getting ready for their second night without power on Tuesday. Their south suburban Flossmoor home was just one of 40,000 south and far south suburban ComEd customers who've been in the dark for more than 24 hours.

Ava Rose Calpino said, "It was like a thousand balloons popped, then everything shut down. It was in the middle of the night and it was very scary."

More than 500 ComEd crews, with help from private contractors, have been criss-crossing the region, which on Monday was hit by one of the widest spread outages they've ever seen.

ComEd spokesman Luis Diaz Perez said, "High winds in excess of 80 miles per hour whipped lines, brought down poles."

Most of the outages were caused by fallen tree limbs, snapped utility poles, and lines downed by wind gusts of more than 80 miles an hour. Add to that the 89,000 lightning strikes recorded during Monday night's storms, the most anyone can remember.

The storms created a dazzling lightshow and plunged 500,000 ComEd customers into darkness. More than 99,000 were still without power Tuesday night.

Tojuana Carter of Flossmoor said, "I got bags of ice to try to keep food from spoiling, because you know how expensive food is."

On Chicago's South Side, senior citizens living at a senior center at 48th and Lake Park were frustrated. Patricia Akin said, "When you call ComEd, you get an automated response that says 'hold on help is coming … could be 2-3 days.'" 

In Chicago's Jefferson Park neighborhood, workers at a Baskin Robbins store watched as the product melted away. "We had to throw away everything ... ice cream from the cooler, ice cream cakes, everything," said store manager Tony Singh.

ComEd officials said crews were working as fast as they can to fix downed power lines and restore power and they expected to have 90 percent of all outages restored by Wednesday afternoon, but it could be as late as Friday until all power is restored.

"We had a number of customers whose power went out in the first wave of storms. We got some of those back up and another wave came through the night," said ComEd Customer Relations VP Anne Pramaggiore.

The bottom line was that some customers could be in the dark for several days. It will also take time for city crews to clean up fallen trees.

The damage to cars and property was extensive. Priority has been given to homeowners like Anthony Glass. Winds as strong as 75 miles per hour knocked his neighbor's elm tree onto his bungalow.

"We heard thunder and then after that, about 10 seconds later I heard this pop, pop, bam," Glass said. "I went to the door and, oh my."

Monday night's torrential rains also flooded some city streets, viaducts and basements. On Tuesday, most of the standing water was gone but city officials said if homeowners still have water in their basements, they should call 311 for help pumping the water out.

Officials said most homes have power lines or circuit breakers in the basement, so if there is water there, homeowners should stay out of the basement to avoid electrocution.

As for ComEd, since it might be a few days until all power is restored, officials advised anyone without power to keep their refrigerator closed or move their food into a relative's or friend's home. 

ComEd said 161 extra crews from out of town would be brought in Wednesday in an effort to get all power restored as soon as possible.

CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker and Jay Levine contributed to this report.

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