ComEd crews responding to outages caused by heavy storms

ComEd is working to restore power to about 27,000 customers after heavy storms Sunday morning caused outages across the region.

Spokesman John Schoen said that as of 11 a.m. there were about 17,500 customers without power in Chicago and the North region, which includes the Northwest suburbs.

Power had already been restored to more than 32,000 other customers who experienced outages earlier in the day.

"We saw some pretty strong winds coming out of this and a lot of lightning. When you have that, you start to see poles going down, lines going down, tree branches coming down and hitting the lines," Schoen said.

Crews are clearing trees and branch debris that have fallen on the lines and putting up new poles and restringing wire.

"Safety is always number one," Schoen said. "We ask people to stay away from downed power lines. If they see a downed power line, don't get near it. Just because it isn't sparking, doesn't mean it isn't live."

People should call (800-334-7661 to report a downed line.