An estimated 1,600 households, most of them in west Wilmette, lost power Friday afternoon when unseasonably high temperatures from a brief spring thaw and accompanying gusty winds caused electrical disruptions and tree damage.
John Prejzner, assistant to Wilmette’s village manager, said the first electrical outage around 12:30 p.m. affected about 200 households, while 1,400 households lost power around 2 p.m.
The second outage hit Wilmette Elementary School District 39’s Mikaelian Education Center headquarters at 615 Locust Road, Superintendent Raymond Lechner said, but power was back on by 3 p.m.
As of 3:45 p.m., Commonwealth Edison’s power outage information page for the Wilmette and Kenilworth areas indicated that there were still more than 1,000 households without power. More than 750 of the outages were reported in the Big Tree Lane neighborhood of west Wilmette, according to the outage page.
Friday’s warm weather and wind also kept Wilmette fire, police, and public works crews busy clearing tree limbs and at least two trees downed by the gusts.
Fire Chief Mike McGreal said his department was called to the 3000 block of Highland Avenue early Friday afternoon after a tree hit a house on that block. The damage was minimal, McGreal said.
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Another tree downed a power line at the intersection of 10th Street and Linden Avenue shortly after 3 p.m., he said.
“Public works is busy clearing up multiple branches down around town,” McGreal said.
The warm weather was also probably behind a water main break at the intersection of Skokie Boulevard and Wilmette Avenue, Prejzner said. Although the main break was fixed by 3 p.m., it forced the Wilmette Park District to close its Community Recreation Center, which lies just north of the break location, at 3000 Glenview Road.
“We had no water and couldn’t use the washrooms, so it caused us to close for the afternoon,” said Kathy Bingham, the district’s recreation superintendent. “And then we lost power, so we will remain closed for the rest of the day.”
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