NAPERVILLE, Ill, Jan. 14, 2003 -- About 900 customers had heat and hot water restored to their homes and businesses Tuesday morning. This is a result of a fourth night of a massive, around-the-clock effort by Nicor Gas crews to end the outage for Wilmette and Evanston customers that began Friday when Nicor's system was flooded by the rupture of a Wilmette high pressure water main.
The company reported that 800 customers have complete service and 100 more who live in multi-family buildings have heat and hot water, but not yet gas for cooking in their individual units. Nicor expects to reconnect 40 customers where a new pipeline is being constructed today. Finally, there remain about 90 customers, both business and residential, where water or weather-related damage has occurred to their meters and/or gas appliances.
More than 200 Nicor Gas workers along with Nicor Services heating contractors Tradewinds and Dykstra are at this time working to fix problems unique to each of the 90 remaining locations. The company will work on a 24-hour basis until every single service is completely restored.
Nicor Gas is one of the nation's largest gas distribution companies. Owned by Nicor, Inc. a holding company, Nicor Gas has provided safe, reliable natural gas services for more than 45 years. The company serves two million customers in a service territory that encompasses most of the northern third of Illinois, excluding the city of Chicago. For more information, visit the Nicor Web site at www.nicor.com.
