Evanston officials say about 4,000 ComEd customers lost power in the city when severe thunderstorms blew through town about 9 p.m. Thursday night and knocked down power lines.
As of 3 a.m. today ComEd officials said about 50,000 customers across the metro area were without power.
That’s only about 10 percent of the outages reported during the June 21 storm that included at least two tornado touchdowns, one in Mount Prospect.
Last night the reported power outages in Evanston, based on a map provided by city officials, were concentrated on the east side of town along Chicago Avenue and Sherman Avenue and included portions of downtown and the lakefront.
There was also another cluster of outages south of Oakton Street between Dodge and Asbury avenues.
An updated map this morning showed that the areas without power had shifted, to include more of northwest Evanston and much less of the east side of town, but the south Evanston neighborhood that was without power last night was still blacked out.
Lara Biggs of the city’s Utilities Department said that as of 7 a.m. today ComEd was reporting about 1,200 Evanston customers lacked power.
Update 10 a..m.: City officials say power has now been restored to about 800 customers in northwest Evanston and that ComEd officials are hoping to have the remaining customers affected by the storm to have power restored before noon.
The Levy Senior Center was without ComEd power until around 10 a.m. this morning, but programs were able to operate normally using an emergency generator, according to City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz.
Update 1:40 p.m.: As of early this afternoon city officials said the number of Evanston customers without powere had be cut to 163, and ComEd crews were on the scene of some of those problems trying to complete the restoration of power.
Update 4:00 p.m.: The latest outage map shows over 200 customers without power in Evanston.
On Central Street from Jackson to Asbury avenues, 134 customers are without power from a device failure and ComEd crew reportedly is working on the issue. At Emerson and Maple, 31 are customers without power from a downed power line and a ComEd crew is on the scene.
In the area east of James Park in south Evanston — from Dodge to Asbury avenues between Oakton and Howard streets — 76 customers are without power. A crew is enroute to the scene, and the specific problem has not yet been identified. These customers are scattered through the neighborhood, so it may involve multiple issues.
There are also single customer outages scattered around town, although they are generally on the east side of town.
Update 6:45 a.m. 7/2/11: City officials say that all but two customers in the city had their power restored as of late Friday evening.
ComEd customers can visit the utility’s storm center website to report a power outage or call 1-800-Edison-1.
Top: Fallen tree limbs cover the parkway at Roycemore School at 640 Lincoln St. this morning. (Photo by Genie Lemieux-Jordan.)
ComEd Updates
The map of outages EvanstonNow are very useful. I've not seen the URL where those are from or if there are further updates after these.
It would seem at a minimum that ComEd could provide info on where the problems occured, e.g. a sub-station or wires down or transform blew at xxxx _____ Street. In living for over 23 years at the same place, this was the only time I knew where the problem was [downed wire I could see]. All prior outages I [and people by the substation we would have assumed was the problem] have not seen crews there. In fact I've only seen a crew out once in a wide area around me and that was next to houses that had power. I'm not saying they are not out or not where they need to be—just we have no idea where to look [to give us a little hope].
Knowing where the source was might at least help residents know where to look for crews so we have an idea if/when it will be addressed. Esp. when distinct blocks go out time after time but everyone is fine just outside those blocks. Very frustrating.
ComEd is playing games with
ComEd is playing games with the definition of customer. One of the "Customers" without service near Emerson and Maple was a 110-unit condominium. You might interpret the article to mean 31 households, but that is not the case.
Who was able to report?
We were completely unable to report our power outage to ComEd. They make it so impossible to reach a person or get through the automated system (unless you happen to have a current bill and a flashlight on hand when the power goes out) that we couldn't report. So we couldn't get updates, either. It's not that I don't expect emergencies to occur, but it is really frustrating when the company can't make it easier to check in and get updates when they do.