Some Commonwealth Edison customers could be without power until the weekend, the utility said Wednesday, hours after strong storms put hundreds of thousands of people in the dark.
Roughly 139,000 customers were still without power as of 9 p.m. Wednesday, down from the company's total tally of 440,000.
"We estimate 90 percent will be restored with power by midnight tomorrow [Thursday night]," a ComEd spokesperson told NBC Chicago.
The utility said it has about 700 crews working to restore power to those without it.
In Chicago, about 1,300 customers were still without power, down from 65,000 at one point. The Chicago region, which includes the city and near western suburbs, had about 22,000 without power.
The hard-hit northern suburbs still have about 103,000 customers powerless as of 9 p.m. In the south suburbs, about 13,000 customers were without power, while in the farther western suburbs, there were fewer than 100 customers without electricity.
At Northwestern University's Evanston campus, 43 buildings were without power, according to an alert on the school website. Some of those have backup generators and ComEd crews were working to restore power, but as of Wednesday morning, it was not known how long before electricity would be completely restored to the campus.
In Elmhurst, summer advising and registration for new students at Elmhurst College has been canceled because of a power outage, according to the school. Summer classes for Wednesday have also been canceled.
All court proceedings at the Cook County Courthouse in Maywood have been canceled for Wednesday following a loss of power. All civil cases are rescheduled to June 29, at the same times and courtrooms as previously scheduled.
Traffic, misdemeanor and felony cases of defendants in custody of the county are rescheduled for Friday, also at the same time and courtroom. Cases for individuals out on bond are rescheduled for July 27.
For a full list of closings, visit EmergencyClosingCenter.com.
The storms, which hit on the first official day of summer, brought heavy rain, intense lightning and damaging winds. Countless numbers of trees and power lines were down, and getting around proved to be quite a challenge for many commuters and travelers.
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