Community Corner
Village Manager: 1,200 Without Power After Storm
Officials told Patch there are power outages along Lake Avenue, at the Community Recreation Center and Gillson's Lakview Center.
Rough winds and heavy rain Tuesday evening have left approximately 1,200 Wilmette residents without power, according to Village Manager Tim Frenzer.
"As of 8:15 this (Wedenesday) morning, our public works crew, along with police and fire, have been out ever since the storm hit last night," Frenzer told Patch.
"The village's priorities are to get the streets open and make it safe." Frezner said, "We do not have good restoration estimates from ComEd yet; their priority first is getting down damaged power lines safely handled and taken care of."
Find out what's happening in Wilmette-Kenilworthwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Officials said that wilmette has three areas where live wires were damaged: in the 600 block of Locust Road near Wilmette Junior High School; near Lake Avenue and Harvard Street; and in an alley in the 2200 block of Greenwood Avenue.
As of 9 a.m. crews had cleaned up the Locust Road incident and were moving onto the Harvard Street damage.
Find out what's happening in Wilmette-Kenilworthwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Outages have also occurred at the Community Recreation Center and Gillson Park's Lakeview Center, according to Park District Communication Director Shelagh Donoghue. Meanwhile a back-up generator is being used at CRC, which has been out of power since 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, to power phones and computers. Classes hosted at the venue, such as art and gymnastics, are being canceled on a rolling basis while summer camps remain in full swing, according to Donoghue.
"All of our camps are up and running, though we did have a lot of debris in the parks," Donoghue said. Classes, such as art and gymnastics, hosted at the CRC are being canceled on a rolling basis.
Roughly 10 percent of ComEd's customers in Wilmette are without service, according to Frenzer.
"We ask for residents to be patient; we do not have any additional iformation from ComEd." he said "At this time they have more than 200,000 customers out."
The village resides in ComEd's northern region, which was hit the hardest,. But that figure has dropped to 88,000 as of 10 a.m., according to ComEd. In total, 267,000 customers are affected. Wilmette has asked residents to report downed power lines or treees on power lines to 9-1-1, while debris that obstructs public right-of-way should be brought to the attention of the Public Works Department at 847-853-7500.
"We are in better shape than some of the communities that are north and west of here, but 1,200 out in Wilmette is a significant number."
