Oak Lawn Officials Rip ComEd Over Storm Response

A Monday evening storm burst knocked out power for about 4,600 households in Oak Lawn and at the Tuesday village board meeting officials were not shy about expressing their frustration with ComEd's response. 

Mayor Sandra Bury says the power company has told the village that power is likely to be restored sometime on Wednesday to most of the village's homes without it, however in some areas the lights might not come back on until Thursday. 

"It's just very, very frustrating," Bury said. "We are fighting for you."

Bury said as she was out surveying the storm damage on Tuesday she was dissapointed to see only three ComEd crews at work in Oak Lawn. 

Trustee Alex Olejniczak says the delayed response is something that Oak Lawn has been dealing with for years. He remarked that ComEd crews did not even begin working to restore power until 8 a.m. Tuesday morning. 

"They should have an actionable plan to be able to put feet and crews on the street," he said. 

Olejniczak added that other towns of similar size to Oak Lawn do not have nearly the amount of outage problems as the village experiences. 

"They do not do a good job at preventative maintenance," he said, referring to the fact that it was now simply one or two large fallen trees that were at fault for the widespread outages. 

Village Manager Larry Deetjen said ComEd did send representatives to meet with the village on Tuesday afternoon, but the non-senior level employees could not provide any real answers for the continued issues. 

"It was dangerous on 95th Street, it was very dangerous," Deetjen said. 

Large sections of the street and traffic signals were without power after the Blackhawks Stanley Cup game. 

Deetjen said that village crews, police officers and firefighters were out in full force on Monday night and Tuesday doing their part to keep the village safe and aid residents who were experiencing outages. 

Deetjen urged board members that it was time to reach out to the company's CEO and other individuals in real authority to demand answers about Oak Lawn's continued outage problems. 

It was only several months ago that ComEd blamed a power surge that resulted in thousands of dollars of fried electronics on the handy work of a rogue raccoon.

If you are experiencing outages, read the village's information and advice about cooling centers and how to report problems.