Roselle power outages no laughing matter
In certain Roselle neighborhoods, residents lose power so often that it's become a running joke. They say that a neighbor only has to slam the door for the entire block to lose power.
"It's numerous outages for no apparent reason," Roselle resident Kevin Miller said. "We seem to be faced with lots of outages for small storms."
A number of Roselle residents flocked to a special community meeting Monday at Lake Park High School East campus in Roselle. Representatives from ComEd heard their concerns and promised to investigate given locations.
Even Roselle Trustee Terry Wittman chimed in on the issue.
"I expect my power to be out at any given time," he said. "It could be sunny and it will go out."
While attended mainly by people who often experience power loss, the meeting is among many that ComEd has been hosting throughout the state to outline a new severe weather response communication plan.
The plan is the result of recent storms that have plowed through the region, particularly on Aug. 23, 2007. Roughly 630,000 people lost power that day -- that's about 20 percent of all ComEd customers. In some cases, it took four days to restore power.
William J. Voller, director of the northern region and external affairs for ComEd, said that it was the largest storm in the region since March 1998. Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Glenview, Wilmette and Northbrook were hardest hit, he said.
Though ComEd officials said they did a good job with restoration, they added communication needs to improve to give its customers a better idea of what to expect.
Voller outlined the lessons learned from that storm. The utility company plans to enhance its storm protocol and quality of service by better informing municipalities about emergency circumstances.
That includes sending out blast e-mails, faxing, calling and sending text messages to municipal leaders. Voller said the company also plans to provide four-hour updates and implement an E-Outage tool.
Municipalities will be asked to provide the utility company with locations of critical emergency locations, such as fire and pump stations.
In addition, municipalities will receive quarterly newsletters packed with emergency information that can be shared with residents.
ComEd is also updating its 1-800 Call In Process, he said. When customers call, they will have the option to get updates from a virtual system.
A live person will still be available. Finally, Voller said that ComEd will offer municipalities enhanced support. The company plans to train new account managers who will work directly with municipalities in cases of emergency.
"We can always do better," Voller said.