Every Hinsdale home that lost electricity in Tuesday's storm had power back by 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, Village President Greg Hart confirmed.
It took about 30 hours.
The restoration closes a turbulent stretch for residents who endured two severe weather events in just 15 days. The Aug. 11 storm knocked out power to approximately 1,700 ComEd customers at its peak, with 753 still dark by Tuesday evening. The Monday, July 27 storm left about 1,200 homes without electricity for nearly a week.
Hart, who posted updates throughout both outages on his X account, said the village will continue following up with ComEd on reliability. He has previously outlined broader infrastructure concerns including targeted undergrounding of electrical lines, enhanced vegetation management and stronger system hardening.
"We cannot simply restore power and move on as though nothing happened," Hart wrote in a guest column in The Hinsdalean on Aug. 6, after the first storm but before the second hit.
That column announced Hart had sent a written letter to ComEd CEO Gil Quiniones documenting what residents endured during the July 27 outage. He committed to requesting a formal after-action review with ComEd and said the village would explore options for hardening the local grid. As of Aug. 6, ComEd had not responded publicly to Hart's letter, and no date had been set for the review. Whether the utility has responded since is unclear.
Tuesday's storm system carried a tornado warning for southern DuPage County until 11 a.m. and a severe thunderstorm watch through 2 p.m., with the National Weather Service warning of wind gusts up to 80 mph and possible embedded tornadoes. Hart posted his first acknowledgment of the outages shortly after, saying the village was "in touch with ComEd" and had "made them aware of the outages affecting our community."
The July 27 storm was part of a regional outbreak that left more than 530,000 ComEd customers without power across northern Illinois. During that outage, the village's Public Services Department fielded about 60 storm-related calls in a single day, and crews deployed two woodchippers simultaneously to clear downed trees on the north and south sides of the village.
Hart has credited Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch and state Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton for advocating directly with ComEd on the village's behalf during the July outage. Speaker Welch personally contacted CEO Quiniones to reinforce urgency, as we reported July 31.
Hart distinguished between ComEd's lineworkers, whom he praised for working in dangerous conditions, and the utility's planning and infrastructure decisions, which he criticized. His Wednesday post thanked "ComEd crews who worked to restore service" while reaffirming the village's intent to hold the utility accountable on long-term reliability.
Hinsdale Government Week Ahead
No public meeting on ComEd infrastructure hardening or the after-action review has been scheduled. The Village Board's next regular meeting agenda has not been posted. Residents can monitor upcoming agendas and public comment opportunities at the Village of Hinsdale website or contact the Village Clerk's office for meeting schedules.
