Powerless weekend: 'Phonies' and family fun

Elmer "Al" Acevedo of Glen Ellyn was livid Monday. He and his wife had been without power since the Friday storm. But what angered the 70-year-old was trying to get straight answers from ComEd.

He repeatedly called with his rotary phone and was frustrated by the customer service line offering touch-tone options. It took several calls before he finally reached a human being. When he did, he was told times for restoration that never happened. As a result, he lost about $150 in refrigerated food and he and his wife experienced heat exhaustion.

"They're just a bunch of phonies," Acevedo said of ComEd Monday. No doubt, many customers shared his frustrations throughout the weekend - but not all did.

ComEd did restore service to about 99 percent of the victims of the power failure and expects to complete the rest by Tuesday. About 6,600 customers remained without power Monday afternoon in Chicago and the suburbs, ComEd spokeswoman Tabrina Davis said. But Acevedo and others were still upset about their circumstances, especially where to place blame. Some were even concerned about reimbursement for spoiled food or other damages.

"It is important to note that ComEd can't be held responsible for damages that occur as a result of events outside the company's control, such as lightning, wind, ice, hail and tree or animal contact to our facilities," Davis said.

Des Plaines, Mount Prospect and many suburbs were hit hard, causing as many as 550,000 customers to be without power. Touhy Avenue in Des Plaines had been closed most of that time because so many poles were downed that support the electrical network, she said.

About 500 Des Plaines customers were still without power Monday, though, and restoration efforts continued. About a dozen residents had to be evacuated when downed wires fell too close to their homes.

Des Plaines Mayor Martin J. Moylan praised ComEd and their crews, "who have worked around the clock to restore operations as expeditiously as possible."

"Communication with their staff has been excellent and, while cleanup continues, it is obvious that they have been in control of the situation since its inception," Moylan said in a letter.

When thousands of customers suddenly lose power, ComEd's priority is to get the police and fire departments as well as hospitals running first. Then, large groups of customers are next in line, and finally smaller groups and individual outages, said Davis.

"It's most difficult to find customers who are out the longest, but we redeploy workers to those areas until everyone is restored," Davis said.

ComEd also has been sending text messages to roughly 10,000 customers with updates on the restoration. After the storm hit, about 1,000 messages were sent on Friday. Other alerts are available via phone or e-mail to about 400 municipalities.

The Royal Glen Condominiums in Glen Ellyn had about 60 units without power on Monday. Building manager Sharon Marello went to Home Depot to buy emergency lighting and generators. "The hallways are pitch black," Marello said. "We have to do something."

Still, others weren't upset by the outage and even found ways to take advantage of it. A Barrington mom of two teenage sons, for instance, said losing power for about 45 hours over the weekend really wasn't all that bad.

"I rather enjoyed it," said Mary Ann O'Rourke. "It was nice to be without electronics and TV for a while."

Parts of her Barrington Meadows subdivision lose power about once a year, she said. Because usually only half the homes typically lose electricity at a given time, the neighbors have a plan in place. For O'Rourke, neighbors across the street ran a heavy duty extension cord to their home so she could get power to keep her refrigerator and the sump pump running.

When the power went out Friday night during the storm, O'Rourke, who goes by her maiden name, said that for a time, her sons, Joe, 14, and Jack Burns, 17, hung out with friends who had electricity while she and her husband, Leo, grilled dinner and hung out on the patio by candlelight. They then took their dog, Spike, for a long walk to check out the storm damage. But eventually, the power outage gave the family the opportunity to play gin rummy and other card games.

"My son Joe was really good at rummy. He beat me," O'Rourke said.

She was thankful that the temperatures were not hot as a nice breeze flowed through the house. She also enjoyed how neighbors came together to help each other out and spent time together. One neighbor brought over a pot of coffee each morning.

"She knows I need my coffee," O'Rourke said with a laugh.

"There was a lot of laughing, some complaining and a lot of camaraderie," she added.