Some schools in Chicago’s northern suburbs are closed after Tuesday night’s storms as power is still out

DEERFIELD, Ill. (CBS) – Nearly 10,000 ComEd customers in northern Illinois were without power Wednesday afternoon, a day after the storms.

In Deerfield, children were home as some schools were also without power. Schools were closed on Wednesday as it was not an emergency day and the day will be rescheduled for later in the school year.

All schools in Deerfield Public Schools District 109 — Kipling, South Park, Walden and Wilmot elementary schools and Caruso and Shepard middle schools — and the Early Learners preschool program were closed Wednesday.

School District 109 plans to reopen its schools on Thursday – but a ComEd spokesperson said the utility may not be able to restore power in Deerfield until Thursday afternoon.

Kristina Lynch, communications manager for ComEd, told CBS News Chicago the utility’s top priority is restoring essential facilities such as hospitals, senior living facilities and police and fire stations. Next would be repairs that would keep most customers and those in areas with significant damage running — and finally, isolated outages, which are typically small areas of severe or isolated damage that can be more complex and take longer to restore.

Parents like David Silvers had to find ways to keep their children occupied on Wednesday. He said his wife took the little ones to an indoor playground while he cleaned up storm damage at home – with a little help from the family dog, Maggie.

“My friend lent us his generator, so we have fans in the kids’ room,” Silvers said, “but it’s still not comfortable.”

Deerfield residents were all waiting for ComEd to restore power Wednesday.

“Sometimes I sit in my car and turn the air conditioning on full blast, just for a short time,” said Ilyse Steiner. “There’s nothing else we can do.”

Steiner said there is not much more that can be done until power is restored.

“What are you going to do?” she said. “It will come back when it comes back.”

The storms Tuesday night also caused chaos throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, particularly in the northern and northwestern suburbs. The next day, emergency crews cleared away debris and fallen trees while ComEd worked to restore power.

Richard Green saw a huge tree fall and block his driveway in Northbrook.

“The noise of the rain, thunder and lightning was so loud that it was like a crack when the tree fell,” Green said.

Trees also fell in several other northern and northwestern suburbs. Communities hard hit included Evanston, Glencoe, Wauconda and Vernon Hills.

In Deerfield, power was still out at Wilmot Elementary School Wednesday afternoon, Lynch wrote. Wilmot was one of four school buildings in Deerfield School District 109 that lost power Wednesday, according to CBS News Chicago.

A crew was on site in Wilmot late Wednesday, but electrical equipment in the area was severely damaged, including several broken power poles and trusses.

Recovery time for Wilmot was estimated at noon Thursday.

Given ComEd’s timeline, CBS News Chicago asked school district officials if schools would reopen Thursday even if there was no power in the morning. There was no response late Wednesday.