300,000, mostly in Lake, McHenry, remain without power

Around-the-clock efforts continued Tuesday afternoon to restore electricity to about 300,000 customers who remained without power after Monday’s powerful storm.

ComEd said the bulk of outages remained in Lake and McHenry counties, where Libertyville and Crystal Lake sustained some of the more severe damage. Those affected by the outages were mostly in the suburbs, as about 43,000 customers in the city of Chicago remained without power.

At the height of the outages on Monday, about 868,000 customers lost power, the largest number since the company began keeping records under its current format in 1998.

A ComEd spokesman said Tuesday night that the utility expects to restore power to 70 percent of affected customers by this afternoon, 90 percent by midnight Wednesday and 99 percent by midnight on July 16.

While residents without electricity tried to salvage food and stay cool in temperatures that topped 90 degrees on Monday and approached the upper 80s on Tuesday, some businesses and government offices had to close shop.

The IRS office in Downers Grove closed Monday and Tuesday due to lack of power, and customers were directed to other locations in Chicago, Orland Park and Schiller Park, as well as the main IRS website and a toll-free hotline.

Chicago IRS spokeswoman Sue Hales said she was unsure if Downers Grove employees were working out of other offices, but said the impact on their schedules was minimal.

“Many of our workers have the ability to work off-site and are often in the field anyway,” she said.

About 20 percent of the stores at Oakbrook Center mall in Oak Brook also remained without power Tuesday. The mall stayed open, and some businesses such as Nordstrom used generators to keep regular hours. But most stores experiencing outages remained closed, officials said. They added that fixes were estimated for 6 a.m. Wednesday.

Public businesses that do have electricity, such as local libraries, saw a noticeable influx of extra patrons. Officials at the Helen Plum Memorial Library in Lombard said several people dropped in for Internet access, while the Addison Public Library was designated as a cooling center. Officials reported about 25 percent more traffic on Monday.

“There’s not as many (Tuesday), but it’s still busier than usual and all of our computer terminals have been full,” said Addison library spokeswoman Sally Schuster.

Because the storm is what ComEd officials called “an act of God,” the company will not reimburse customers for spoiled food or other financial losses caused by the power outages.

Cable, phone and Internet service providers like Comcast and AT&T are experiencing minimal problems with their own services, officials said, but many customers aren’t able to access them due to lack of power.

“At this time it appears issues customers are experiencing are directly related to a power outage, so our services should be restored as power comes to their home,” said Comcast spokeswoman Angelynne Amores.

She added that, because of this, any refunds for lost service are likely unnecessary but would be considered on a “case-by-case basis” that could be reviewed by contacting Comcast’s customer service centers. AT&T officials also said any refunds are assessed on an individual basis.

ComEd continued to operate command centers Tuesday in Libertyville and Bedford Park, two suburbs that were hard-hit by the storms. Workers at the centers are supervising restoration efforts and coordinating both local crews and crews that came to assist from as far away as Pennsylvania, Missouri and Iowa.