Storm Causes Outages, Tree Damage in Evanston

The city posted the following update late Saturday afternoon:

The City of Evanston continues to work to clean up after Friday afternoon’s storm.

Assistant Director of Public Works/Forestry Paul D’Agostino reports this afternoon:

“We have about 5-6 sites left that cannot wait until Monday. The crews should have these finished up before 6:00 PM tonight. We have cleared all the blocked streets, but still have some alleys blocked, which we cannot address until ComEd clears their overhead wires. Unless we get anything really bad, we will take tomorrow off and start again first thing Monday morning. We were able to squeeze in a couple locations where they had block parties scheduled for today, and made some residents very happy.”

ComEd reports less than 150 residents without power. 100 of these residents are south of Oakton between Ridge and Dodge, with the remainder scattered in various locations around the city.

Residents are encouraged to contact our 3-1-1 call center with any other questions or concerns. www.cityofevanston.org/311

Original post:

The following is from the City of Evanston:

The City of Evanston continues to work to clean up after Friday afternoon’s storm.

Assistant Director of Public Works/Forestry Paul D’Agostino reports this morning:

“We currently have nearly 90 separate locations with tree issues. They range from entire streets blocked by downed trees, to limbs blocking alleys, sidewalks and streets, to broken and hanging limbs. We also have two locations where trees have begun to uproot and are leaning, but have not yet fallen. These two trees are being addressed today.

We had three crews out last night until 9 PM clearing the main streets that were blocked to clear them or at least make them passable. We have three crews out again today to address the most serious problems, and to try and get all streets passable. We will also try to address the hanging limbs where we can, but I suspect there are many more of these that have not yet been reported by residents. We will conduct a street by street inspection beginning Monday to make sure we address all the hanging limbs that could cause damage or injury. I have not yet decided on whether I will have crews out on Sunday. We will decide this based on what they can accomplish today, and whether there are still locations that pose a danger or not.

I suspect it will take most of next week to thoroughly clean up everything that was damaged during the storm and remove all the hanging limbs.”

Utilities Director Dave Stoneback reports there are still approximately 750 accounts in Evanston without power. The majority of them (645) are along Asbury between Oakton south to the CTA tracks. There are other small areas with 45 or so out.

ComEd has crews in the city working. Most of the outages are due to tree branches pulling down the electric wires. Residents without power are encouraged to confirm with ComEd that the utility is aware of their outage.

The traffic signals at Ridge, Green Bay and Emerson are not working and will likely not be operational until next week. Please be aware of the Northwestern football game this afternoon which could add to congestion in the area.

Residents are encouraged to contact our 3-1-1 call center with any other questions or concerns. www.cityofevanston.org/311