Crews are furiously working across Illinois and Indiana to deal with the “unprecedented” destruction caused by a derecho that swept through the region Tuesday.
As of 12:30 p.m. Thursday, more than 50,000 Illinois customers are still without power according to ComEd, and the devastation is far worse in northwest Indiana, where NIPSCO says more than 200,000 of its customers are still without power because of Tuesday’s derecho.
The utility estimates that more than 60% of its customers were impacted by the storms Tuesday, making it the single-worst event in its history.
“While thousands of customers have been restored since the storm, the unprecedented extent of the damage means restoration progress may vary by community,” officials said in a statement. “This is the largest outage event documented in NIPSCO’s history, affecting approximately 60% of our electric customers at its peak and causing extensive damage throughout the electric system.”
NIPSCO officials said the damage occurred to all parts of its grid, including to poles, power lines, substations, and a variety of other infrastructure.
Other storm damage such as downed trees, damaged homes and flooding are also causing issues with trying to restore power, and crews are still asking the public to avoid unnecessary travel through storm-impacted areas.
According to the National Weather Service, Tuesday’s derecho was among the worst ever recorded in Illinois, with widespread wind gusts of nearly 100 miles per hour reported across parts of the Chicago area.
At the peak of the storm, more than 400,000 customers were without power in ComEd’s coverage area, with more than 300,000 impacted in Indiana. Some estimates hold that 96% of customers in Lake County were without power after the storms, which have caused massive disruptions not only to the power grid but also to infrastructure, fuel supplies and food supplies.
ComEd says it has restored power to more than 80% of its customers since Tuesday’s derecho, but they too are reporting the historic nature of the outages, saying Tuesday’s storms were the 20th major event affecting its customers this year, the most in a single year in more than two decades according to the utility.
ComEd says it hopes to have nearly all remaining customers without power serviced by Saturday.
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/15tI3hs
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