Two days after severe storms and tornadoes ripped through Chicagoland leaving destruction in their wake, a suburban business owner is stepping up to the plate to help his local residents who were hit hardest during the storms.
Early Walker, owner of W&W Towing in Blue Island and Jerk 48 in Alsip, put his W&W trucks to work delivering supplies to the Robbins Community Center Wednesday, while also slashing prices at his Caribbean restaurant to help those who can’t cook food at home right now.
“Our trucks have turned into pickup trucks these last few days,” Walker said. “We’ve had tree limbs, branches, and now water on the back.”
Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant said the town had as many as 1,300 households without power on Monday, with ComEd officials saying there are still 271 households without power as of Wednesday evening in Robbins.
“Our village hall has been in operable since Monday as well too,” Bryant said. “Our system has been down. We haven’t been able to process payroll and other things of that nature.”
It’s a problem that’s persisted throughout other south and southwest suburban areas as well.
“My power has been off since Tuesday,” said Cierra McKinnie, a Country Club Hills resident. “My whole refrigerator, deep freezer, I had to throw my food away. It’s been a whole mess.”
Other residents from the Country Club Hills and Markham area told WGN News it could take until Friday night before ComEd has their power fully restored, which prompted Walker to take additional action.
“We’ve done a $4 and an $8 menu specifically for the community,” Walker said. “We know a lot of people don’t have power, gas, lights and things of that sort so, we wanted to do this as a way of giving back so, we wanted to slash our prices 75%.”
Back in Robbins, residents affected by the storms can get free water and cool off at the Robbins Community Center, which was designated as a local area cooling center for those still waiting for the air conditioning in their own homes to turn back on.
“We’re on the right track up,” Bryant said. “But still a long way to go.”
For more information on W&W Towing and Jerk 48, visit their websites below.
W&W Towing: https://wwtowing.com/
Jerk 48: https://jerk48.com/