Nearly all of south suburban Harvey remained without power Thursday, three days after intense storms swept through the area.
More than 7,500 ComEd customers in Harvey were without power Thursday morning, which equates to more than 91% of the city.
Monday afternoon's storms have the National Weather Service investigating if Harvey was struck by a tornado. The severe weather left widespread destruction throughout the city, even snapping its main transmission line in half as far as the eye can see.
Some residents said they've never seen things this bad.
"This is just another major setback for a city that’s trying to get back on its feet," Darren Willis said, noting, "the lady at the end of the block, she’s on oxygen… They got generators going but we do need some type of assistance out here."
In addition to fear for the sick and elderly, food safety is a major concern of residents now as food in refrigerators and freezers is starting to go bad without power for days.
"I don’t know what we’re going to do," Evoice Bonds said. "Water, we’re trying to find ice. We can’t find ice. Had to go over to Riverdale for ice just to try to save the food.”
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"We can’t just uproot and go to a hotel," Nicole Harrington said. "We need help! So hopefully this brings attention and awareness to what’s going on."
A ComEd spokesman said Thursday morning that the utility company didn't believe it had crews overnight in Harvey but that they would be in the area in the morning.
Anyone who spots a downed power line, or has to report an outage, is asked to call ComEd at 1-800-EDISON (1-800-334-7661). Spanish-speaking customers should call 1-800-95-LUCES (1-800-955-8237).
