In a windowless kitchen Wednesday afternoon, the only light came from a blue gas flame burning beneath a pot of roiling oil, two flickering candles and a sliver of gray daylight borrowed from another room.
For Joe Lumzy, 40, who fried chicken on his stove, it was a second day without power since a violent storm spawned the Chicago area’s biggest blackout in three years.
He doubted it would be his last day in darkness.
“I figure it will be four or five days,” said Lumzy, as a mass of fallen trees and snapped wires swarmed his Englewood back yard. “I know they don’t care about us. If they did, they would have been here on the first morning to fix it.”
Despite his pessimism–which was apparently shared by many–more than 450 crews fanned out across south Chicago and the south suburbs to restore power bit by bit after the devastation of Monday’s torrential storm. A peak of 320,000 customers without electricity was down to 31,000 by 7 p.m. Wednesday–16,000 in Chicago and 15,000 in the south suburbs.
The areas still recovering include Englewood, Hickory Hills, Palos Hills, Oak Lawn and South Holland.
“This is in fact one of the most significant storms we’ve faced in recent ComEd history,” ComEd President Barry Mitchell said.
Company officials said they hoped to have all power restored by 11 p.m. Thursday and pleaded for patience in the meantime. Though crews both local and imported from as far as Philadelphia worked 16-hour shifts, the thousands of downed and damaged trees walloped power lines and utility poles, leaving extensive damage.
“We recognize the inconveniences, and ComEd is doing everything it can,” ComEd spokesman Tom Stevens said. “In many cases, our employees live in the areas where there is no power. We’re really empathetic to the concerns of our customers.”
However, the Citizens Utility Board has received a “fair number of complaints” about the company’s response, Executive Director David Kolata said.
“It was a serious storm, but from the calls we’ve been getting, it seems like people are skeptical of the response,” Kolata said. “The most frustrating thing for consumers is often when they can’t get a hold of the company, and we’ve had a lot of complaints on that.”
Across the area, tree limbs continued to litter lawns, sidewalks, alleys and back yards. Where the outages persisted, the damage was particularly extensive, as fallen trees lay tangled in smashed power lines.
In Englewood, residents relied on small flashlights to get around their homes, ate canned food and fought boredom with card games by candlelight, early bedtimes and unusually early awakenings.
“Today was the first time in my life I was up before 7 a.m.,” said Devon O’Neal, 23, who lives on West 56th Street. “I wanted to get outside and see some daylight. I was tired of the dark.”
