530 remain without power in Chicago after Monday storm

Only 530 ComEd customers in Chicago were still without power Thursday evening, although the utility company expects to return service to almost everyone by Friday night.

So far, ComEd has restored power to about 125,000 customers in Chicago as of 8 p.m., according to company spokesman John Schoen.

In total, about 99% of ComEd outages in the city have been restored since Monday, he said. Statewide, 50,000 customers, or about 7%, remain without power.

ComEd has been working since a Monday storm — one of the most powerful storms to hit northern Illinois in a decade — wreaked havoc in the Chicago area.

A total of 15 tornados touched down in Illinois and northwest Indiana, one of them in the Rogers Park neighborhood, according to the National Weather Service. The Rogers Park twister was among the largest of those and, at 110 mph, it had the highest peak wind speed, according to weather service data.

Schoen declined to give an updated estimate for when power would fully be restored to all customers. After the storm, ComEd said some customers might be waiting until Saturday for power to return.

“We’re really getting down to the hard-hit areas,” Schoen said.

For instance, Harvey suffered some of the worst outages after wind took down a line of transmission towers, he said. About 63% percent of customers in the south suburb were still without power Thursday evening.