No Injuries But Plenty of Downed Power Lines Reported After Storm

No accidents or injuries were reported after Monday morning's storms, but Romeoville officials had plenty of downed limbs and power lines to deal with, police said.

"We had a lot of downed tree branches and limbs," Assistant Chief Steven Lucchesi said, adding several areas of Romeoville also lost electricity. Power was still out near Murphy Drive and Cindy Circle, he added, saying ComEd was working on the problem but could not give officials an estimate as to when power would be restored.

Garland Avenue was closed for several hours due to downed power lines, along with a section of Belmont Drive near Dalhart, Lucchesi said. The roads have since reopened. 

By late morning, ComEd spokesman Tony Hernandez said roughly 576,000 customers in the Chicago area were still without power. Power has been retored to approximately 121,000 ComEd users, starting with critical customers including hospitals, police and fire departments. "Because of the severity of the storm and the number of customers without power this could be a multiday scenario," Hernandez said of the timeline for fully restoring service.  

According to the company's power outage map, 10,000 residents in ComEd's Joliet region, which includes Romeoville, Lemont, Plainfield, Crest Hill, Lockport, New Lenox, Channahon and Shorewood, remained without power as of 3 p.m. Monday. Winds of 65 mph were reported in nearby Plainfield, and Metra was reporting delays of nearly half an hour this morning for inbound commuter trains.

A National Weather Service severe thunderstorm watch was in effect until noon Monday.

Monday night, Romeoville residents can expect lows in the lower 70s, according to the National Weather Service. Tuesday’s forecast calls for a 30 percent chance of storms and highs in the mid-80s.

What people are saying

Here are some of the reports Patch readers shared on Facebook:

Sheryl Bernth The wind was intense!

Diane Mazur Cholewiak Some branches down in Weslake, but that was really it. There may have been an accident or a downed power line on International Parkway, but I turned when I saw all the EMS vehichles, so I couldn't see what happened.

John Mercer downtown Lockport ..power out ..maybe a while...tree came down on State St ...took out power lines...not pretty here at all

Timothy D'Amico I am sitting at work in the Stock Yards (South Chicago) and we have every bit of 65 MPH winds...