Planning key for ComEd, customers

Another day, another thunderstorm in the suburbs. That seems to be a regular occurrence so far this summer and Wednesday was no exception.

After a morning storm hit, a Daily Herald reporter did a quick story online but at first was unable to get information from ComEd as to the extent of any power outages.

Considering the heat ComEd has been under since a more powerful storm last Friday, we find that unacceptable. Many customers have been angered by what they say was poor or nonexistent communication regarding the previous storm and another one on Monday, so it seems ComEd needs to shore up its PR machine.

A quick trip to the ComEd website Wednesday morning showed many outages on their outage map. And a story on its home page told customers that ComEd relies on the media to get information out quickly to the region.

Once we did get the information we learned from ComEd spokesman Jeff Burdick that there were 3,353 new outages in the northern region and 1,087 in the western region. He said the storms were widely scattered, with no indications of concentrated outages.

He also told us that all power lost from storms that hit Friday evening and earlier this week - a number that reached over 10,000 customers Tuesday morning - was completely restored by Tuesday night.

That means some people went several days without power, including Glen Ellyn resident Elmer Acevedo, whose frustration with ComEd resulted in this quote: "They're just a bunch of phonies."

While we can sympathize with 70-year-old Acevedo, we think it might be a tad harsh. We understand when ComEd asks for patience in dealing with Mother Nature. And we have no reason to believe they'd rather not get power back on as quickly as possible. We would urge people to make sure they have a plan in place for times without power (flashlights, generators, etc.) because that's always a possibility with the kind of stormy weather we've been experiencing.

We especially like the attitude of Barrington residents Mary Ann and Leo O'Rourke who grilled dinner outside and relaxed on the patio via candlelight Friday night before going for a long walk. And then they played gin rummy and card games with their sons.

The lesson? Try not to get overly excited about things you can't change.

But with that said, ComEd should take this opportunity to review its procedures. Complaints of restoration times that came and passed and areas not marked as outages on their website are cause for concern. Also, ComEd needs to work with local communities and counties to assess whether more trees need to be cutback near power lines and whether certain lines should be buried. Readers should also alert ComEd to power line issues. With official start of summer just under way, more storms are sure to follow.