Power Outage Affects 22,000 In Brutal Cold In Aurora
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Aurora on Monday was being inundated with 911 calls after a power outage hit the east side of town on Monday.
About 22,000 customers were affected and ComEd crews were working to fix a problem with a substation there. By evening, service was restored to the majority of customers.
The Fox Valley Mall in Aurora is among those affected by the outage.
The outage hit as the area is suffering through the coldest temperatures in years.
Aurora police and fire officials are imploring residents not to call 911 for information on the outage, spokesman Dan Ferrelli said.
All inquiries about the outage should be directed to ComEd at 800-Edison 1 or ComEd's website at www.comed.com.
"While officials understand the heightened concern of the outage due to the brutal cold, Aurora's 911 operators have been inundated with calls concerning ComEd response, restoration times, and other questions of which they have no information and should be directed to the utility," Ferrelli said in an email.
"The number of calls being received can compromise assistance to people having immediate, life-threatening emergencies."
