ComEd: Everyone's power is back on
ComEd has restored everyone's electrical power four days after Sunday's blizzard but will keep crews on hand to respond to any more damage to power lines from bad weather expected this weekend.
The utility announced the completion of repairs shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday.
ComEd spokesman Tom Dominguez said the only repairs left on Thursday were those that disrupted service to a single home or business. He said most outages to these customers were caused by downed trees severing lines or high winds snapping them.
With more severe weather anticipated this weekend, including rain turning to snow with more high winds, Dominguez said ComEd will keep staffing levels high to handle any problems that arise.
ComEd said in a statement it brought in 1,500 crews from the East Coast and from Illinois' neighboring states to augment ComEd's 1,200 employees.
ComEd President and Chief Operating Officer Terence R. Donnelly said in the statement he is "disappointed that our computer system experienced delays that prevented our customers from getting timely information on the restoration effort. While power was restored quickly, our customers need to know the status of our restoration efforts and are rightfully frustrated when our systems don't provide that information. I want to thank our customers for their patience, and I commit that we will work with our IT vendors to fix what went wrong so that it never happens again."
The snowstorm that began Sunday evening initially cut power to more than 340,000 ComEd customers. Many waited for days to have electricity restored while temperatures dropped to around 20 degrees at night. This weekend, temperatures are predicted to stay at or above freezing.
Any ComEd customers who experience an outage or see a downed wire should call (800) 334-7661.