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© Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesUtility Workers
Commonwealth Edison says nearly all of its customers in the Chicago area who had power knocked out by Tuesday night's storm, including 239,000 still without power, "could" have their electricity restored by late Thursday.

The storm, which hit after 7 p.m. and prompted numerous tornado warnings throughout the area, according to the National Weather Service. By 9:30 p.m., the most severe portion of the storms passed to the northeast.

The downed trees and power lines have Commonwealth Edison crews scrambling to restore power and Metra working to removed downed trees and branches from the tracks.

As of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, approximately 239,000 ComEd customers across the area were without power, according to spokesman Derrick Clifton. Since the storms hit, 175,000 ComEd customers have had power restored.

ComEd has had approximately 400 crews out since the storm blew through the area, working to restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers who were left in the dark.

The northern suburbs are hit the hardest, where 187,000 are without power, Hernandez said. In the south suburbs, about 32,000 customers are without power, while the western suburbs have about 1,100 customers in the dark.

"We're thinking that due to the extent of the damage from the storms, we might be looking at a multiple-day effort," ComEd spokesman Tony Hernandez said. More than 400 ComEd crews have already restored 144,000 customers to power as of Wednesday morning and will work round-the-clock to finish repairs, he said.

Airlines at O'Hare International Airport have already canceled 250 flights Wednesday and are experiencing some delays of up to 20 minutes, according to the city's Department of Aviation. Midway Airport is operating normally as of 7:30 a.m.

Meteorologist Samuel Shea said numerous funnel clouds were reported in the suburbs, including Naperville, Grayslake and Sugar Grove, but there are no confirmed reports of tornadoes as of Wednesday morning.

Three teams of meteorologists from the National Weather Service will tour some of the hardest hit parts of the Chicago area Wednesday to determine whether damage was caused by tornadoes or straight-line winds, such as the 80 miles per hour gusts reported in Wheeling.

The weather service has received lots of reports of wind-related damage. The intersection of North and Ridgeland in north suburban Waukegan was clogged with multiple downed branches, each more than 30 feet long, according to the weather service. Twelve-inch wide tree branches were downed near north suburban Skokie's village hall, while the side of an aluminum shed was blown in near southwest suburban Bolingbrook.

The storms even damaged a pollen-catching machine atop Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park that provides the Midwest's official daily allergy count, according to the hospital. A doctor had to manually reshape the blades of the pollen-catching machine to put it back in working order, just in time to measure Wednesday's high mold count.

"Winds that high can bring down tree lines, they can bring down power lines, they can tear roofs off buildings," Meteorologist David Beachler said Tuesday. "It depends on how its coming together, it depends on the structural integrity of buildings ... Nonetheless, the consistent theme with tonight's storm is there are a lot of trees down and power lines down."

The metro area will see a slight chance of thunderstorms Wednesday morning through early afternoon, according to the weather service. Highs will be in the mid-70s with a 40 percent chance of showers.

Weather conditions and debris on the tracks at several locations kept five trains stranded on the Union Pacific/Northwest line into the early morning hours Wednesday, hours after they were supposed to arrive at their destinations, according to Metra's website.

Four trains were also stopped on the Union Pacific/North line during the height of the storm. Strong winds also blew at least one tree onto the Milwaukee West Line, which runs between Chicago and Elgin, Gillis said. The first train was stopped about 9 p.m., Metra spokesman Michael Gillis said.

Gillis could not immediately say how many people had been stuck on the trains that were stopped late Tuesday.

Some trains during the Wednesday morning commute are delayed up to 30 minutes because of lingering track obstructions and signal problems near Western Avenue, all related to last night's weather, the website said.

On the CTA, Yellow Line service is suspended Wednesday morning because of ComEd work, according to the CTA's website.

Customers should use the No. 97 Skokie bus as an alternative, the website said. Dispatch reports indicate crossing gates are not functioning.

Metra reported a "variety of delays and stops," mostly because of high winds. At 9:30 p.m., "more than 10 trains" were stopped on all Metra tracks, said Metra spokesman Michael Gillis, who described delays as "extensive."

An inbound train from Elgin to Chicago was stopped because of a tree that fell onto the tracks, Gillis said.

All Union Pacific Northwest Line trains and Union Pacific West Line trains were stopped, while some Union Pacific North Line trains were also affected, a Metra service advisory said.