Power outages persist more than 3 days after Illinois, Indiana tornado outbreak
Days after storms brought 13 tornadoes to Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana, utility crews were still working to restore power to customers who were still in the dark Monday morning.
The storms that brought the tornadoes happened Thursday night. Early Monday morning, damage was still easy to find across parts of the area, notably including the southwest suburbs.
In Bridgeview, pieces of roofing remained scattered around an apartment building on 79th Street after powerful winds ripped through the area.
The National Weather Service has now confirmed 13 tornadoes from the Thursday night storm outbreak, including an EF-2 tornado that tracked from Hickory Hills toward Midway International Airport.
For days, utility crews have also been working to restore power after strong winds brought down trees, power lines, and utility poles across the region. ComEd said 674,000 customers lost power during the Thursday night storms, but more than 99% had had their power restored as of Monday morning.
In Northwest Indiana, NIPSCO said about 10,000 customers remained without power Monday morning.
"In a number of locations, we essentially had to rebuild parts of the electrical grid from the ground up," said Jeremy Smith of ComEd. "That includes replacing broken poles, rebuilding damaged sections of the system, and clearing extensive tree damage before power can be safely restored."
ComEd said crews as of Monday were in the final stages of restoration.
NIPSCO said some customers in Northwest Indiana could remain without power until Wednesday as repairs continue.
Meanwhile, the City of Naperville was helping with storm cleanup Monday after Naperville was hit with an EF-0 tornado on Thursday night. There will be a citywide bulk brush collection.
Residents need to place any brush and tree debris in the parkway in front of their homes by Monday morning. The brush does not need to be stickered, cut, bagged, or tied.
Public works and contractor crews will go around for pickup through Saturday, June 27.
