Praise for public works department
A microburst of praise and thanks to the city of Wheaton's Public Works Department and contracted crews for the excellent job they did clearing the streets after the severe storm that hit Wheaton on the afternoon of Thursday, Aug. 23.
On Friday morning our Hawthorne neighborhood looked like a war zone with fallen trees on almost every block.
Our power was out for 70 hours, but we survived with meals from the Smoke House and many candles.
We kept contact with the outside world using a 40-year-old, pocket-sized transistor radio, but heard no reports about what progress was being made in our area to restore the electricity.
On Sunday morning we were encouraged by our first sighting of a ComEd truck, and a few hours later the clock radio in our bedroom announced that it was 1 p.m. That report roused us from an early afternoon nap and joyfully energized us.
We thought it would take weeks to clean the streets and yards, but in just a few days the city crews picked up all the fallen branches our granddaughters, Calla and Carissa, had helped haul to our curbside.
The city workers even raked and swept the road, and then a city street cleaner finished the job in the early hours of the next day.
Well done!
Glenn and Margaret Ann Arnold
Wheaton