Storm area described as 'war zone'

July 1, 2012 (LOCKPORT) (WLS) -- Many residents in the southwest suburbs are still cleaning up from Friday night's storms.

Thousands were still without power Sunday morning as they faced another uncomfortably hot day.

People here have been working non-stop to get things up and running again

The Lockport community took a beating during Friday nights storm. Just ask resident darren koester.

"A very surreal feeling, hoping this was a bad dream but it wasn't," Koestner said.

All three of his vehicles were totaled when one of his trees toppled onto them. It also knocked out power and blocked his street.

At the height of the storm, more than 60,000 Com-Ed customers were without power in the south suburbs during another hot and humid summer day.

"Got my brothers generator, it's providing enough power for the freezer and a window unit in the kitchen, so that's where we are living right now," said Karen Lindquist

Clean-up crews worked non-stop to get streets back open, power lines up and running, and removing tree limbs from homes and lawns.

"It's basically a war zone," said Kevin Mabry of Homer Tree Service. "There's trees down everywhere, stuff over the houses, broken branches everywhere. It's been a lot of work."

Even local businesses were impacted. Many restaurants couldn't open until the power was restored.

"A lot of our food got thrown out, because after a certain amount of time you can't save a lot," said Joe Schaeffer of Papa Joe's Restaurant. "(Some food was transported) to Orland Park and put it in our freezers and coolers over there."

As of Sunday morning, there were still about 2,800 with out power. Com-Ed hopes to have everyone back online by the end of Sunday.

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local, diane pathieu

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