Homewood community step up to help people in need during power outage

Thousands of people are still without power following Monday's storms, which brought down trees and power lines.

In Homewood, Illinois, both a nursing home and a retirement home are on the same block affected by the outages. They're considered critical facilities, which are a priority for utility crews who say over half a million people were impacted by the storms.

People across the community step in to make sure they're okay until their power comes back on.

The storm's aftermath left seniors at the retirement home off Maple Avenue navigating the hallways with flashlights.

"Here specifically, we found out they didn't have any food," said philanthropist Early Walker.

Walker and his team from ER Towing made their rounds on Tuesday, dropping cases of water off in Markham and Hazel Crest too.

"We've dropped off a ton of wings, as well as batteries and flashlights because they've been getting through these halls without light," he said. "Community is about businesses, community leaders, everybody coming together for one common cause."

Walker said he was almost brought to tears when a woman told him that they almost felt forgotten about. He says that's what a lot of seniors feel. 

ComEd officials say over 2300 crews are focusing on power restoration.

"ComEd now has had the most tornadoes in the nation, so we took over from Oklahoma, which was known as, you know, tornado alley," said Dorvel Offord, director of regional electric operations.

Public works crews in Homewood say it's been nonstop.

"It was a war zone," said public works director Joshua Burman. "Trees snapped in half, trees uprooted, blocking roads, power lines blocking roads."

Homeowners like Rich Matula are dealing with massive trees down.

"It was shocking just to see how much damage we got all in this area," he said.

One tree fell on top of his home and several fell on power lines in his backyard.

"Don't have power. They're saying 72 hours. I don't think it's going to be for about a week. Truthfully, just because of how bad the lines are back there," Matula said.

Power at the retirement home was restored on Tuesday night.

ComEd officials say so far they've restored power for nearly 400,000 customers and are hoping to have even more restored before Wednesday morning.