ComEd bringing in outside help for storm aid

Repair crews are crossing the country from Philadelphia, Texas, Tennessee and Kentucky to help restore electricity to hundreds of thousands of suburban homes and businesses.

Still, that won't be enough to get the lights across the suburbs for "several days," says Exelon chairman Frank Clark. Exelon is the parent company of ComEd.

Surrounded by downed power lines at a Mount Prospect apartment complex, Clark said this afternoon that yesterday's violent storms left 600,000 customers without power for some period of time. As of 4:30 p.m. today, about 185,000 customers still had no power. This morning that figure was at 250,000.

Clark said crews are first concentrating on critical facilities, like hospitals, and downed lines that can put the most number of homes back on the grid.

"Everybody wants to be first, and nobody wants to be last," he said. "Your patience will be appreciated."

The power outages are some of the most extensive on record and they stretch from the Wisconsin border to the far south suburbs.

The hardest hit region was the north and northwest suburbs, which still had about 108,000 power outages by late this afternoon. There were about 2,500 homes or businesses without power in the western suburbs.

The traveling repair crews should start arriving tonight, Clark said.

Getting power restored is a labor-intensive process following such a storm, Clark said, because of the extent of the damage to lines, the flooding and the thousands of snapped trees.

Clark said that he could not pinpoint when all the power would be restored.

"We will just methodically go through until we get all the customers back, he said. "I do hope ... everyone will help out wherever help is needed."

Clark warned residents to stay away from downed power lines and out of flooded basements because the water could be electrified.