Some schools in Chicago's north suburbs are closed with power still out after Tuesday night storms
DEERFIELD, Ill. (CBS) -- Nearly 10,000 ComEd customers in northern Illinois remained without power Wednesday afternoon, a day after storms rolled through.
In Deerfield, kids were home—as some schools were without power too. Schools were closed Wednesday as a non-emergency day, and the day will be made up later in the school year.
All the schools in Deerfield Pubic Schools District 109—Kipling, South Park, Walden, and Wilmot elementary schools and Caruso and Shepard middle schools—and the Early Learners preschool program, were closed Wednesday.
District 109 plans to reopen its schools on Thursday—though a spokesperson with ComEd said the utility company may not be able to restore power in Deerfield until Thursday afternoon.
ComEd Communications Manager Kristina Lynch told CBS News Chicago the number one priority for the utility was to restore critical facilities such as hospitals, senior centers, and police and fire departments. Next would come repairs that would restore the largest number of customers and those in areas of significant damage—and finally, individual outages that usually involve small pockets of severe or isolated damage that may be more complex and take longer to restore.
Parents like David Silvers had to find a way to occupy the kids Wednesday. He said his wife took their little ones to an indoor playground, while he did storm cleanup at home—with a little help from the family dog, Maggie.
"My friend let us borrow his generator, so we have fans going into our kids' room," Silvers said, "but it's still not pleasant."
Deerfield residents were all ready Wednesday for ComEd to restore power, particularly given that it was hot out on Wednesday.
"I'm sitting in my car sometimes blasting the AC, just for a little bit," said Ilyse Steiner. "There's nothing else we can do."
Steiner said there is not much to be done beyond that until power is restored.
"What are you going to do?" she said. "It's going to come back when it comes back."
The storms Tuesday night also made a monumental mess all around the Chicago area—particularly in the north and northwest suburbs. The following day, crews were clearing debris and downed trees as ComEd worked to restore power.
Richard Green saw a massive tree come down in Northbrook, blocking his driveway.
"The noise from the rain and the thunder and lightning was so strong that when the tree came down, it was just like a snap," Green said.
Trees also came down in several other north and northwest suburbs. Evanston, Glencoe, Wauconda, and Vernon Hills were among the municipalities that were hit hard.
Service was also stopped early Wednesday morning on the Chicago Transit Authority Yellow Line to Skokie, while crews removed debris and branches from the tracks west of Ridge Avenue in Evanston. Trains were back running Wednesday afternoon.
Back in Deerfield, power remained out at Wilmot Elementary School in Deerfield as of Wednesday afternoon, Lynch wrote. Wilmot was one of four Deerfield School District 109 school buildings in which CBS News Chicago was told power was out Wednesday.
A crew was on site at Wilmot late Wednesday, but there was serious damage to electrical equipment in the area—including multiple broken electric poles and cross arms.
The restoration time for Wilmot was estimated for Thursday at noon.
Given that timeline from ComEd, CBS News Chicago asked school district officials whether schools will still reopen Thursday if there is no power in the morning. Late Wednesday, there had been no answer.
