Power Outage

We lost power about 5:00 p.m. just before the boys went to football practice. The phones still worked so I called around. I called 1-800 Edison1 like I always do when we lose power and got all the flashlights ready. We have some great flashlights from camping. I placed them strategically around the house. A lot of people were sitting outside. I was told there was a fire at the substation in town by the fire station and Wal-Mart. I was getting ready to eat all the ice cream and to pack up some of our food and take it to my brother's if the power was out too long. It came back on after three hours at about 8:30 p.m. right after the boys got back from football practice. I went out to get some Taco Bell for them and it was wild. All the strip malls, street lights, stoplights everything was dark except for car headlights. I drove north on Lemont Road east down 75th Street all the way to Cass Avenue then south. Everything was dark. I drove past work and it looked like we had lights. The power outage covered a big area. I ended up getting Wendy's for the boys. I was glad the power came back on. I've had to shower before with no power and the garage door has to be opened manually. Am I spoiled or what. Next morning at work we lost power 4 or 5 times between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. We were already to go home. The night before they sent everybody home at 4:30 p.m. I was already gone because I get off at 3:30 p.m. A lot of people in the area didn't have power for almost two days.

Our Darien Mayor Carmen Soldato said at least a third of the city was affected by the August 10th fire at a Darien substation that cut power to at least 22,000 homes and businesses in southeastern DuPage County. "This last outage continues a trend of many, and was not a mere inconvenience but a crisis," he said. City officials have been meeting with ComEd routinely over the last nine years, and more intensely over the last 12 months, about frequent power outages. Officials want ComEd to upgrade its equipment and provide a written plan showing how the utility plans to maintain its distribution network and provide reliable service in Darien. Soldato said he is encouraging other communities to join Darien's efforts. The decision to consider taking legal action against ComEd came on the heels of an Aug. 12 press conference called by Soldato, who expressed the city's dissatisfaction with the utility. Residents who flanked the mayor carried signs that read "Fix the Problem" and "No More Promises." "A power outage of a couple of hours is disruptive, but a three-day outage is a crisis," he said. "We wish this communication was not necessary, but the city of Darien is fed up with Commonwealth Edison and their lack of business focus and we are not going to take it any longer," Soldato said. ComEd spokesman Chris Adams said the utility dispatched 150 crews to end the outage. Business owners were hit hard by the lengthy outage. Jimmy Gino, manager of The Royal Shield Restaurant, 7417 S. Cass Ave., Darien, said he was without electricity from 4 to 9:30 p.m. Aug. 10 and had to shut down. "The coolers kept their temperatures so the food was fine, but I did lose business because I didn't have the electricity (to stay open)," he said. Michelle Landato, a Darien resident and owner of Johnny's Italian Beef, said she lost money Aug. 10. "We didn't lose a lot of beef because we had generators, but we had to postpone deliveries. It was a loss of a whole day's income and we had to be up all night because the generator needed gas," she said. Joanne Martin, manager at the hair salon J C Cuts Inc. at 7515 S. Cass Ave., said Aug. 12 that her shop was without power for about 21 hours. "We had to cancel all of our appointments (Aug. 11) because we were closed for the entire day. We're a little backed up because we're trying to fit in all of our (canceled) Thursday appointments but we're handling it OK. Everybody's going to work a little longer to make up for it," she said. The Republic Bank Of Chicago, 1510 75th St., Darien, was without electricity for about 38 hours. Sharon McCarthy, a bank supervisor, said the power didn't come back on until about 10 a.m. Aug. 12. "Some (bank employees) went to different branches to work during the outage. Some of us were here and just kind of sat in the dark," McCarthy said. Ernesto Duran, senior communications specialist for ComEd, said anyone who has incurred damages can file a claim with ComEd by either going online to download a form, or by calling the company at (800) 334-7661 and asking the company to mail a form to them. Claim forms were also handed out last week in Darien. Duran said it was too early to tell how many people have filed claims so far since it takes about a week for people and businesses to fill them out and mail them back to corporate offices.