More than 3,900 without power in Lee County, ComEd reports

Work continues to restore power to those who lost it in Friday’s storm — even as forecasters track another system that could bring more severe weather to the Sauk Valley.

Lee County had 3,917 residences without power at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, though ComEd promised that power would be restored to all customers in its territory by 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service warned another severe storm was headed toward the region as early as Monday evening.

Power outages

The utility reported that 21 outages were the cause Lee County. Most of these were in the southeast corner of the county, such as in Amboy, Sublette and West Brooklyn — one of the areas hardest hit by the storm.

Crews working overnight had improved the situation resulting from the powerful storm on Friday that spawned tornadoes. The number was down from Saturday evening, when there were still 42 outages affecting 7,288 residences.

On its website, ComEd posted a message:

“We continue to work to restore power across the ComEd territory. Storms of this size cause severe damage and can take longer to repair. Over 90% of customers have already been restored and all customers are expected to be restored today by 5 p.m.”

Carroll County had fewer than five houses without power. Whiteside had nine outages resulting in 100 customers without power. Ogle County had five outages with 167 without power.

Bureau County is served by two utilities. ComEd said it had seven outages affecting 71 customers. Ameren Illinois reported it had one customer without power there.

Forecast

According to the National Weather Service’s Quad Cities station, severe storms are possible Monday night and again on Tuesday afternoon and into Wednesday morning.

The Monday storm line could produce large hail.

The service said the more severe threat appeared to be a long track of supercells that could strike starting Tuesday. These would be followed by a line of thunderstorms in the evening.

Tuesday’s storms could produce large hail, tornadoes and damaging winds.

Storm assessments

The Chicago station of the National Weather Service confirmed that there were 12 distinct tornadoes in northern Illinois on Friday.

Tornadoes are ranked on what is called the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale, with wind speed being one measure of classification. EF-0 is 65 to 85 mph, EF-1 is 86 to 110 mph, EF-2 is 111-135 mph, EF-3 is 136-165 mph, EF-4 is 166 to 200 mph and EF-5 is more than 200 mph.

Investigation continues, but preliminary estimates on the strength of some of those tornadoes is as follows:

Amboy was an EF-2. West Brooklyn was an EF-1. Baileyville had a tornado whose strength has not yet been determined. An EF-1 hit Machesney Park and an EF-1 went from Davis Junction to Belvidere.

Tornadoes were also confirmed in Caledonia-Poplar Grove, Wellington, Stockland, Lombard to Addison, most were EF-1. The Chicago station also tracked EF-2 tornadoes in Oxford and Fowler, Indiana and an EF-1 in Remington, Indiana.