While power has been restored to nearly all of Riverside in the wake of a strong storm that moved through the area on the morning of July 24, the Riverside police and fire departments, along with offices in the township hall, were still operating on generator power. But power was out completely for a second day at the Riverside Public Library on Wednesday afternoon.
Cathy Haley, administrative assistant to the Riverside village manager, reported that a representative from an electrical contractor hired by ComEd told her that the problem was a live wire still down across the river in Riverside Lawn.
In order to get to that wire, ComEd may have to de-energize the system again, which could result in further outages to customers in Riverside.
Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said the police and fire departments have been running on generator power since about 8:20 a.m. on July 24. As a result, the buildings have been without air conditioning, except for the E911 center. Computer servers located in another part of the building have had fans blowing on them to keep them cool, said Weitzel.
“It’s extremely hot,” said Weitzel of the police department, which is basically a windowless structure without much capacity for cross-ventilation. “We’re not using as many lights and it’s difficult on employees.”
ComEd sent a message to Weitzel and Fire Chief Spencer Kimura at 11:16 a.m., reporting that 139 customers were still without power in the village. As of 3 p.m., ComEd’s online power outage map showed that almost all of Riverside was back on the grid, except for 12 customers in the area of Ames School on the north end of the village.
Meanwhile, a handful of customers were still without power near Cermak Road and 11th Avenue in North Riverside.
In Brookfield, small-scale, scattered outages are also still being reported. The majority of the outages there appear to be located near the intersection of Fairview and Blanchan avenues. According to the ComEd outage map, those locations could be without power until Thursday evening.
