CHICAGO, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- A leading electricity provider in the Chicago area had to bring additional crews on Tuesday from other states to restore power, after a major blizzard knocked out supply to hundreds of thousands of customers.
Heavy snow and high winds in excess of 80 km per hour, and ice brought down wires and resulted in broken poles, causing more than 350,000 customers in the area to lose power since late Sunday.
As of 1600 local time on Tuesday, a total of 25,832 households or businesses still remained without power, mostly in the suburbs of Chicago, according to data released by the electricity company Commonwealth Edison (ComEd).
"Given the extent of the damage, we have also asked utilities across the country for assistance,"said ComEd in a statement.
Over 800 line workers have arrived in Illinois to help, including employees and contractors from ComEd's sister utilities in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, in addition to other crews from as far away as Oklahoma and Florida.
As temperature stayed around minus 5 Celsius in Chicago, residents without power at home had to seek temporary shelter while ComEd workers continued to respond to power outages.
