Crews work to get power back after outages span Illinois

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - UPDATE: ComEd released a statement Thursday addressing ongoing efforts to restore power to nearly 70,000 customers without power.

“We appreciate your patience as crews work to restore outages. Based on the history of similar storms of this size, we expect 80% of outages in your region to be restored by Thursday evening (2/23/23) and the majority of our remaining outages restored by Saturday evening (2/25/23). Please check with your village or city hall for warming center information. The best way to stay updated on your outage is to sign up for outage alerts at ComEd.com/Alerts.”

The company addressed restoration efforts at a 1 p.m. news conference outside its Rockford site.

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Power outages are crippling the stateline Wednesday. As of around 6.p.m Wednesday, ComED reported 17,000 outages throughout Winnebago County.

Rebecca Dempsey is the Senior Communications Specialist with the energy company. She says workers are preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.

“ComED does have crews ready to respond to outages in Northern Illinois. We have upped some of our on-call staff members to ensure that we are meeting our customers’ expectations to restore power as quickly as possible during this ice storm,” she told 23 News.

Outages occur during an ice storm because of ice forming on power lines and surrounding trees. The ice can cause these power lines to snap and tree branches to fall. Dempsey says that COMED monitors their power lines year-round to decrease the chance of heavy power outages across the region. However, with the amount of ice forming in the region, outages are still going to occur.

If you do have a power outage, here’s how to contact ComED or Rock Energy Cooperative.

For ComED: