Friday’s one-two punch left considerable damage and widespread power outages.
These photos were taken in the immediate aftermath of the afternoon wave of high winds and heavy rain.
In my neighborhood, the area north of Prairie and west of Main seemed hardest hit, with many big limbs down.
The village public works department was out as soon as the worst of the storm had passed, working to free a Mercedes at Seeley and Chicago, right, from branches that had fallen on it (no one was injured) and also to clear an tree split by the winds on Chicago near Saratoga (bottom photo, right).
The second round of storms blew through Friday night, leaving many homes on the northwest side (including mine) without electricity for more than 12 hours. Power was restored by Saturday afternoon.
Like you, Elaine, we were without power for 15 hours Friday night/Saturday morning. After about 10 hours, JUST as I was about to run out to buy a few styrofoam coolers (to supplement the coolers we have) and ice, our neighbor came home with a generator, which–after running his fridge and freezer for a couple of hours, he graciously let us plug ours in to “charge” them up. Since we had resisted the urge to open them at all–even to check–it appears that all our food remained sufficiently cold/frozen to prevent damage.
This morning about 8:00 there was still a power cord stretched across Prairie (??!) a few blocks west of us, which may mean that the power still hasn’t been restored to some homes.
I noticed the power cord, too, Bob. Also the sounds of the generator Saturday morning. Not sure what to make of our fridge. It has a digital thermometer that always seems wildly inaccurate — surging to 70 when we load groceries in the winter (the room isn’t that warm) — so I tend to discount it. I’m hoping all is well — accept the lunch meat, of course, which will end up in the garbage.
Driving west on Chicago Ave from Main Street to Seeley is like driving through a tree graveyard. I counted 10 trees that had to be taken down completely due to storm damage. A great loss for the neighborhood. The people on Linscott and Middaugh between Chicago and Lincoln did not get their power restored until late yesterday afternoon.
Sump pump with battery back-up = best money I’ve ever spent.
During the height of the storm I watched anxiously from my kitchen window, hopeful that this would be the storm that knocks out the pine tree next to the driveway and sends it crashing into my garage so I can rebuild it on Allstate’s dime. Alas, no such luck.
Lot at a higher elevation than my neighbors. Best money I ever spent.
The USDA food guideline states that a freezer left unopened in a power outage will keep food at a safe temp for up to 48 hours. I ditched all the meats in mine but kept the veggies, waffles and girl scout cookies. The fridge I dumped everything but the eggs, butter, and condiments – with the exception of the mayo. Glad the rain was only a burst as the painters took the gutters down this week.
“Atta boy” to the homeowners with blessed power that shared it with their less fortunate neighbors. The power cords snaked across the street are heartwarming.
Amazingly a lot of DGers are still without electricity eg. west of Lee and north of Prairie. Com Ed is “waiting for a part”!!!
Waiting for a part? You’ve got to be kidding. Then again, nothing about Com Ed and its antiquated system surprises me anymore.
On Saturday Michael’s had to throw away a lot of meat and fish since they lost power for a while in the early morning. Apparently, some coolers were not hooked up to the back-up generator. So they had chicken breasts for $1/lb but they had nothing in the deli cooking section, where they do rotisserie chickens and such.
This was a big deal for us since we went specifically for the 50 cent samosas. What a fantastic treat – but they didn’t have any! My daughter was quite upset.
As a side note, I was also disappointed by the changes to the bread section – the assortment of naan and pita and such has decreased. C’mon, I can get white bread at Target. I want oddly-shaped flatbread.
Even with below ground power lines we lost electricity for 2 1/2 hours on the south end of town. I was ready to fire up the generator but didn’t need to this time. Someone said the substation at 63rd near Fairview may have been hit by lightening.
Winds were very strong here too. One neighbor lost a stem of a maple tree that covered the 75 ft width of his backyard.
At our place we did have power (Our Lines are underground) BUT the lights did flicker a few times but we didn’t loose power. With that being said ComEd is at the point where I am saying we need to start deregulating the power companies in Illinois.
I was out of town over the weekend, and when I got home on Sunday I couldn’t believe how many trees near our house were down. My husband says our power came on early Saturday afternoon, so we were one of the lucky houses.
way too many old and unkempt above ground power lines in Downers