Randhurst a bright spot during area's power outage

There are rare occasions when the line blurs between covering the story and being in the story.

That happened last Thursday afternoon, when the office police scanner kept repeating the refrain "Mount Prospect," shortly after the big storm hit.

I immediately headed out and cruised the streets to survey the scene. On my way back to the office, I stopped by my Arlington Heights condo just to see how things were at home. Sure enough, everything was dark.

It was dark until Sunday morning.

Ironically, even though much of Mount Prospect was also blacked out, I wound up spending most of my time in the village.

Most of my time in Mount Prospect was spent at Randhurst. Even though power had failed at spots on the perimeter, like Borders, the mall was as shiny and bright as a newly inserted porcelain crown. And there were plenty of options at the food court (thank you, Sbarro).

I also sampled the fine cuisine at the Artemis (a delightful chicken kabob and egg lemon soup were my choices).

It was a welcome respite from carrying heavy bags of garbage up and down four flights of stairs -- not to mention going to the laundry at 2 a.m.

What she did with her power: Mount Prospect Trustee Arlene Juracek downplayed the irony in the fact that she, a former ComEd executive, also lost power.

Juracek said she actually had flooding problems days before Thursday's power outage but not during it, because a new sump pump had been delivered Thursday morning and kept going through Saturday.

However, she did lose power, and when the power came back for her neighbors, it didn't return at her house until Saturday night.

"Our transformer that served the 12 of us down at the end of the line was out. Apparently, it had been struck by lightning and there was some mechanical damage to it."

Her advice to readers is, "Even if your neighbors have called in, make sure you call in your outage from your own address and your own phone number. That way, ComEd has a sense for what's going on. Because if you don't call in, and they restore the main line and you're still out, they have no way of knowing it unless you call in."

Juracek is still digging her way out from the previous week's flooding -- her basement had 6 inches of water, which was enough to destroy the furniture that was there. It hasn't been a pleasant task dealing with moldy Christmas ornaments and sopping wet sports cards.

She did have a bit of bit of luck. She was able to plug in her freezer at a neighbor's house.