ComEd crews have restored most of power in Chicago area after storms

Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) crews have restored power to more than 60 percent of customers in the Chicago-area after a derecho moved through the region Monday.

A derecho is a windstorm, usually associated with lightning storms. The derecho brought hurricane-force wind gusts over 90 miles per hour, 4,300 lightning strikes, golf ball-sized hail, and a tornado in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. The storm caused downed poles, broken lines, and damage from uprooted trees and broken branches.

ComEd has restored service to 541,000 customers, but approximately 343,000 customers remain without power. ComEd’s smart grid investments, including technologies that automatically detect outages and reroute power around problem areas, allowed the company to restore service to 440,000 customers in the first 16 hours after the storm. ComEd expects to restore power to the majority of customers by Friday night. The company has more than 1,900 employees and contractors working around the clock to restore energy with an additional 1,400 mutual assistance workers coming in from out of state to help.

“ComEd appreciates the patience of our customers following this severe storm,” ComEd President and COO Terry Donnelly said. “The damage from this storm was significant. As we continue to restore power to customers in hard-hit communities, the safety of our customers and our crews remains our top priority.”

ComEd reminds customers in the area that if they encounter a downed power line, they should never approach and immediately call ComEd at 1-800-EDISON1.