North Shore continues storm response with thousands without power and hundreds of service requests

Local municipal crews are continuing clean-up efforts around the village after Monday’s severe storms resulted in more than 4 inches of rain, as recorded in some parts of Wilmette.

Wilmette Village Manager Michael Braiman offered an update on the town’s response Tuesday, July 28 during the Village Board’s meeting.

Braiman noted that as of Tuesday evening, July 28, approximately 600 homes remained without power, down from more than 1,000 on Monday. In Highland Park, the outage number was still north of 1,300 as of Tuesday evening with a high concentration located in north Highland Park/Fort Sheridan, the city said.

The Village of Skokie reported that approximately 800 households were without power on Tuesday afternoon.

Although cleanup efforts will continue for “several more weeks,” Wilmette crews have already addressed and cleared the highest-priority tree fallings blocking roadways and major sidewalks and any causing safety issues, Braiman said.

Some parts of Wilmette reportedly received just over 3 inches of rain while other portions of the village took in 4.05 inches. Those rainfall totals occurred in a “few-hours period,” Braiman said, adding “that’s an incredible amount of rainfall.”

The village received nearly 200 service requests for downed trees, power outages and floods, according to Braiman. Wilmette crews are still responding to those requests as of publication time and prioritizing public safety first, he added.

More than 1,000 homes in the village were without power on July 28, village officials said. As of Tuesday night, though, ComEd had reduced the number of outages to just under 600, Braiman said, noting that “we know that is still a significant amount of houses without power in the community more than 24 hours after the event.”

Braiman told The Record Wednesday morning that there are currently 560 ComEd customers without power in Wilmette. Representatives from ComEd reportedly told the village the company is working on restoring all 560 of those outages, meaning they either have crews actively addressing the outages or have units en route to locations with outages to initiate repairs.

A significant outage of 309 households near the CTA’s Linden Avenue station is the largest ongoing in the village right now, officials said.

Village officials said the impact of the rainfall was mitigated by the village’s Neighborhood Storage Project, the largest capital improvement effort in Wilmette history that was completed in 2023.

The stormwater management infrastructure collected approximately 3.5 million gallons of water at Hibbard Park, Thornwood Park and Community Playfields and “helped to reduce the amount of water in Village streets, resident yards, and prevented sewer backups,” village officials said.

Braiman called the collection total a “great success in the ability to keep water out of residents’ basements and prevent open-land flooding.”

According to Braiman, Wilmette’s public works crews will also be conducting a special collection of fallen or broken tree branches and limbs from Monday’s storms. The village is encouraging residents to bring large tree limbs to their curbs by early next to ensure timely collection.

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