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Power Restoration Pushing Ahead For ComEd

UPDATED 06/24/11 6:00 p.m.

CHICAGO (CBS) -- About 9,000 ComEd customers were still without power Friday, nearly three days after tornadic storms knocked them offline.

ComEd says as of 6 p.m., 8,000 customers in the northern suburbs remained without power, along with 1,000 in the southern suburbs.

At one point, about 433,000 customers were without power.

The continued outage has been frustrating many Chicago area residents, particularly in the north and northwest suburbs.

On Thursday evening, Aymen Zabadnay's Skokie condo building has been powerless for two full days. He had candles in his kitchen and rotting, thawing food in the fridge. And he had two small children to worry about.

He also had to take the stairs everywhere, since no power means no elevators.

"Why us– I mean, we're right in the center of everybody that has light? Why can't we have the light?" Zabadnay told CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman.

Also, several gas stations were closed, their pumps left inoperable due to the lack of power. The owners and drivers alike were thoroughly unhappy, and wanted ComEd to hurry up.

"Chop chop – for what we spend for electricity and everybody, they should be able to chop chop and get it done," said motorist Jim Pomgrantz.

The storms Tuesday night did far more damage than just knocking out power. Two tornadoes touched down – one in Downers Grove, the other in Mount Prospect – and tree limbs and power lines were ripped down all across the area.

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