CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) -
More than 2,000 ComEd customers remain without power Sunday morning after Friday's storms brought heavy wind gusts that toppled over trees and left behind downed power lines.
As of 9 a.m., 2,300 customers remain in the dark, mostly in the southern portions of the Chicago metropolitan area, according to ComEd. This is down from the 2,920 customers that were without power at 3 a.m. Sunday.
At its peak, the power outages affected nearly 60,000 customers at midnight on Saturday, ComEd spokeswoman Arlana Johnson Said.
Customers began reported outages after 9 p.m. when heavy wind gusts from storms moving through the area caused down power lines and pole damage, she said. Earlier on Saturday, the utility company had 224 crews out working on resolving the outages.
Johnson reminded customers to stay away from and report any downed power lines, and report outages to (800) Edison1 or text outages to OUT26633. ComEd also has a mobile app, for both iPhone and Android devices, which customers can use to report outages.
Earlier, in the late morning and early afternoon, the skies darkened, winds picked up and rain, heavy for a brief period, fell.
That storm didn't stick around for long, but it brought down power lines and scattered hail in parts of the region. Winds up to 60 mph brought down power lines in Geneva, and in Crete, South Holland, and Crown Point, Ind., hail as large as 1-inch was reported, according to the weather service.
In Lockport, large trees were "raining down onto cars" on Route 53 and blocked four lanes, according to a report from the weather service. In Romeoville, winds knocked down a large tree that struck a parked car and took down power lines, causing power outages, the weather service said.
The weather service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Lake, Will, Central and parts of Cook and Kankakee counties.
The fast-moving thunderstorms that hit the area mid-day and late Friday night cooled Chicago off in the wake of Thursday's scorcher that reached a near record high.
Temperatures dipped as low as 69 degrees — for those who suffered through the 100 degree sauna Chicago became Thursday.
Friday still saw a high of 89 degrees at O'Hare Airport. The record high for June 29th was 97 degrees back in 1954.
Saturday's forecast calls for partly sunny skies with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, with highs in the lower 90s.
June has had nine days of 90 degree weather so far, according to the weather service. The weekend will see temperatures in the low 90's before again reaching the mid 90's around Tuesday.
