… and I’m one of them. Today’s severe thunderstorms ripped through the northwest ‘burbs and knocked power out to over 80,000 homes in our area (and over 868,000 homes throughout Chicagoland.) My family texted the news to me as I was waiting to go on Windy City Live this morning. It’s 7:00pm on Monday and the power’s still out.
Right now, ComEd plans to have it back on by Thursday. It’s been an interesting day over here. Nearly everything in Huntley had the power knocked out, including every fast food location in town, gas stations and Walmart. Our Jewel’s got power though, and you can imagine what a madhouse it was… my mom stopped in there and said it seemed like everyone in town was inside the store! (Bet they did big business today.)
Aside from trying to eat up everything that’s warming up in the fridge, and keeping our freezer on lockdown with fingers crossed that nothing melts too much over the next few days, we’re doing fine. We’ve got lots of candles, and the kids are getting an education about the “good ‘ol days” with no A/C, television or video games.
What I don’t have is much charge left on my laptop battery. I’ll be posting intermittently until power is restored.
On another note, remember the P.F. Chang’s Ignite The Night dinner for two giveaway in May on this blog? For hosting the giveaway, P.F. Chang’s people put together a “romantic evening” for the husband and me based on your suggestions! The box arrived and you guys must have wanted us to have a picnic dinner with music, as it contains:
A picnic blanket
Two ceramic bowls
Two sets of chopsticks
Two napkins
An iTunes gift card
A coupon for a free P.F. Chang’s frozen meal for two!
Luckily, our two methods of cooking still available during a power outage include our charcoal grill… and our gas stove! Can’t wait to enjoy this.
The iTunes gift card will have to wait though. For now, this is the only source of tunes in the house…
(It’s a combo crank-up/solar powered radio and flashlight… which really is invaluable for a prolonged power outage.)
Now, it’s time to get the candles ready… as the daylight hours are waning. If your power’s out… hang in there too. We are!
J.R. says
We were driving around this evening running a couple errands, and saw MAJOR tree damage. Multiple large trees down with root crowns sticking up in the air. Major limbs broken. This is about 5 miles east of your location.
BTW, how do you get internet access without power. we were lucky, no glitches at all 3 weeks ago, and a few flickers and a one minute outage this morning. No damage to our trees. We think.
Com Ed is reporting this was the worst storm damage ever. Still half a million houses without power in the area.
tammidunc says
Not good for the freezer and fridge stockpiles! Hope it comes back soon!
Outlander says
I had to laugh when I saw your radio! I have the same thing, only purple! Bought it at JCPenney must be about 12 years ago. And yes, they are great.
Hope you get power back soon!
pamk says
without power for right around 12 hours. Luckily my very smart hubby called our local Home Depot and sent me over to rent the last big generator to save our 2 friges & freezer full of food. ComEd does not reimburse for “acts of god” (which this was)and most homeowners do not have the additional rider on their (we don’t)homeowners policies. So $75 for 24hr rental was a definate peace of mind.
Now Jill, all we need is to start looking for a deal on a generator. The one we rented, 6500 watts powered 2 fridges & upright 14 cu. ft freezer & 1 window a/c unit costs new $2,000.
marlajstuart says
Hope it’s not as hot in the Chicago area as it is in Southern Indiana. Just heard our heat index is 108 degrees!! I can’t hardly imagine being without our air conditioning right now! We’ve gotten soft in our old age…..didn’t have air when I was kid!!
slcski22 says
I live in Gilberts and just bought a new 7 cu ft freezer last week that I haven’t put much of anything in yet. If you need a place to keep some stuff for the week, I’d be more than willing to loan out the space. I’d hate to see anybody’s stockpile go to waste – it’s is going to be my worst fear now that I have a small one started!
stealfinder says
Mine was fine after the storm (Monday) but is out now!
After the last storm my whole block was powerless for just shy of 5 days – but only one side of the street (thankfully not my side). Theirs went out again with this storm too – and again not mine. Unfortunately when I got home from work just now our side is out too! The Downers Grove tornado touched down about a block from my house last month. I laid in bed all last night listening to my neighbor’s generator thinking “oh I hope this doesn’t last all week again.” Now that my side of the street has been added I REALLY hope it doesn’t last that long!
And now I’m off to my mom’s for a shower!
J.R. says
Heard this on the radio this AM and thought I would share. According to the CDC (I think that is who they quoted) a freezer will keep food frozen 24 hours if full and up to 48 hours if half full. I’d never heard the half full increased time before.
Of course this assumes you LEAVE THE FREEZER CLOSED AND RESIST THE URGE TO PEEK. Save that for when the power comes back on.
Hope everyone has their power restored by now, but it sounds like some may have to wait a while longer. Many times I’ve thought about a generator, but lately ComEd has been so much more reliable in my area. The construction has passed up by and moved elsewhere, and with it the outages and frequent summer brownouts.
amynbrian00 says
We were out of power for about 30 hours. I took our refrigerated stuff to my inlaws, but kept my frozen stuff in the freezers, tightly shut. The freezer in our side-by-side did not fare so well….but then again, that held most of our smaller stuff. Lost some ice cream, pizza rolls, frozen pizzas(or soggy pizzas!). But our upright freezer in the basement did pretty well. All of my meat(a ham, a turkey, a whole chicken, 2 pork roasts, and 3 “family” packs of chicken thighs/drumsticks/breasts) was still frozen solid when I got into it! Hooray for that! Of course, right after I loaded everything up & took it to my sister-in-law’s house, our power came back on! Go figure!
Overall, not a terrible loss, I’d say. I’m glad I kept everything closed & resisted the urge to peek!
Hope everyone else gets their power back FAST! Ours was not estimated to come on until 6am tomorrow. 1pm today was a nice surprise!
J.R. says
https://algonquin.patch.com/articles/power-outage-forces-residents-to-throw-out-hundreds-of-dollars-of-food
Editor’s Note: You may be able to get ComEd to reimburse you for spoiled food. ComEd has a claim form on its site that states: “If your claim is for food spoilage, your documentation should include an itemized list of spoiled items shown with the price of each and the total for all items, and copies of receipts or canceled checks, if any.”
https://www.comed.com/Documents/CustomerService_Brochuresandforms/comedclaimform.pdf