Power restored to Lee County Fairgrounds, but some still without service

AMBOY – Electrical service was restored to the Lee County Fairgrounds Saturday afternoon, but some Sauk Valley residents were still without power following yesterday’s storms.

“We’ve got power!!! Thank you ComEd for getting us back up and running. Thank you to all the people who showed up to help, brought in generators and stayed calm during this morning’s storm clean-up,” fair officials posted on social media at 1 p.m. “The temps are cool. Our afternoon schedule is packed!”

The fairgrounds, located 13 miles southeast of Dixon, was one area that lost electrical service after thunderstorms roared through Northern Illinois overnight. At one point, 4,000 Sauk Valley residents were without power prompting some to start up generators while others waited for power to be restored.

According to ComEd’s online outage map, 2,425 Lee County customers were without power Saturday morning. Another 853 ComEd customers were powerless in Ogle County and 813 in Whiteside County. The number of outages dropped considerably by Saturday afternoon, but some outages remained.

“We know some of you are without power and we appreciate your patience as crews continue to assess damage and work to restore power. 87% of outages have been restored as of Saturday morning, July 29, with the vast majority of remaining outages restored by late afternoon Sunday, July 30. Localized areas of major damage requiring significant repairs may take longer to restore,” the power company said on its website.

Across its service area, ComEd reported there were 32,890 customers without power following the Friday night storms.

Dixon residents woke up Friday morning to storm damage as well after strong and windy summer storms blew through the Sauk Valley early Friday morning, taking down trees and power lines and causing power outages. Most of the customers who lost power during those storms had their service restored by Friday evening, according to the ComEd website.

ComEd offers the following information on its website regarding outages.

Restoration Process

When you’re in the middle of an outage, we know it can be frustrating to wait for your power to return. ComEd works to restore services as quickly as possible, putting the safety of our customers and crews first. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Restoration Priorities

We work on restoring power to customers in the following order:

• High-voltage transmission lines and equipment, to restore service to the largest number of affected customers.

• Critical public health and safety facilities, like hospitals, police and fire stations, and water treatment plants.

• Major distribution lines and high-density housing.

• Any remaining smaller neighborhoods and individual homes that have not been restored by prior repair activities.

Damage Assessment

After severe weather with widespread damage, we may need to have our crews come out to take a look before we start repairs and provide an estimated time of restoration (ETR). In some cases, this process may take several hours or days depending on the size of the storm.

Sometimes, a truck may leave your neighborhood before your power is back on. Please know that we are still assessing the larger outage situation.

Estimated Time of Restoration

At ComEd, we strive to provide our customers with the most up to date ETR. Initial ETRs are based on restoration repair history or data from past storms. Our field crews then provide more accurate ETR updates once they’re able to assess the damage. During larger storms with widespread damage, it may take us more time to generate an ETR for customers.

Note: Sometimes a single address can be affected by multiple locations of damage. In this situation, repair work needs to be completed at more than one location. This can cause delays to restore power.