**UPDATE 6:10 p.m. at bottom of article.

More than 1500 residents are without power after significant winds blew through town Wednesday night. Edison crews are currently assessing damage and working to restore power which has been out since roughly 3 a.m.

Neighborhoods in the Pilgrim Place area and Lewis Park (north of Foothill, west of Indian Hill Boulevard to Towne Avenue) were both without power as of 2 p.m. Thursday including the Sprout’s Market shopping center. Edison did not provide an estimate of when power would be restored.

“We had 3 large trees down on eastbound Foothill from Dartmouth to Claremont Boulevard,” said Claremont Police Chief Paul Cooper. “But Foothill has now been completely restored.”

Additionally, a large residential tree on Padua Avenue, south of Pomello, took out an 8 ft. block wall at a home. Forestry Service workers were able to clear the tree from the roadway until city workers arrived to dispose of it, according to Chief Cooper. Police assisted residents of a home on the 200 block of Brooks Street after a large tree fell on its garage at 5 a.m. A building inspector was called to assess the damage.

“As of now, American Street between Indian Hill and Mills is still closed down,” Chief Cooper said. “National Weather Service predicts the same level of winds until 6 p.m. on Friday. But luckily no injuries have come to my attention. ”

Many residential and city trees across town are down in addition to those along Foothill Boulevard. City crews worked expeditiously to remove excess debris and fallen trees along passageways.

“We’re in the process of doing an assessment. Arborists are doing a street-by-street assessment and checking weakened trees,” said Michele McNeill, director of community services. “Landscape crews are picking up the debris, we’ve been doing this since 2 a.m. And by 11 a.m. this morning, we had logged 139 calls for wind damage.”

Clearing arterials and collector streets are the city’s main priorities, according to Ms. McNeill. Johnny’s Tree Service in Upland will assist with the disposal of the city’s green waste.

“They’ve been great to us,” she said. “It will save us so much time. We’re so grateful they’ve agreed to help us out.”

The city has provided 25 green waste bins at locations throughout town so residents can dispose of excess debris. Exact locations will be available on the city’s website, www.ci.claremont.ca.us.

Public schools remained open with 3 schools sites managing well Thursday without power. El Roble Intermediate, Mountain View and Condit Elementary schools all weathered the storm and successfully got through the day without electricity.

“The kids were great and the parents were great,” said Mike Batemen, director of student services. “We’re in line to get it fixed, but [Edison] hasn’t told us when.”

Back up battery packs provide power to school fire alarm systems in power outages, however Mr. Bateman stated that current systems have only about 10 hours of power left. School district officials will notify families of school closures by phone and email first thing Friday morning.

 “We’ll make a decision about tomorrow in the morning,” Mr. Bateman said. “We’re in contact with Chief Cooper and our service center is in contact with Edison, but if we don’t get power back we’ll probably have to cancel school Friday [at those sites].”

Ms. McNeil assures residents that city workers will continue with clean up, one street at a time.

“We anticipate within a week, everything will be back to normal. But there’s a significant amount of debris to clean up, so it will take a short amount of time,” Ms. McNeil said.

—Kathryn Dunn

***A photo gallery of today’s weather damage is available under Photo Galleries on the COURIER homepage.

** UPDATE: 6:10 p.m.

Electricity has been restored to the Pilgrim Place neighborhood. Power is still out in the following locations: Indian Hill Boulevard south of the 10 freeway, 294 homes near Wellesley and Oxford Avenues, 1194 homes in the Lewis Park neighborhood, 37 homes off Mills Avenue near Clarion Place, and 21 homes at Base Line Road and Mills Avenue. Edison reports it is working “around the clock” to restore service as soon as possible.

Below is a list of the locations where bins have been placed for residents to use for storm related clean up.  Only green waste materials are to be placed in the bins and material should not be overflowing out of the bins.  Residents are encouraged to contact Community Services, 399-5431 when bins in their neighborhood are filled.

1.  Charleston Drive / Westbrook Court

2.  Alfred Drive / Eagle Grove Avenue

3.  Villa Maria Road / Diablo Drive

4.  Padua Avenue / Little Rock Drive

5.  Tulsa Avenue / Furman Drive

6.  Grand Avenue / Miramar Avenue

7.  Shenandoah Drive / Lindenwood Drive

8.  Danbury Road / Cascade Place

9.  College Way / Tenango Road

10.  Lynoak Drive / Briarcroft Road

11.  Lafayette Road / Purdue Drive

12.  Briarcroft Road / Lealma Avenue

13.  10th Street / Indian Hill Boulevard

14.  6th Street / Indian Hill Boulevard

15.  7th Street / Yale Avenue

16.  12th Street / Berkeley Avenue

17.  9th Street / Oxford Avenue

18.  Northwestern Avenue / Butte Street

19.  College Avenue / Blaisdell Park

20.  Springfield Street / Oak Park Drive

21.  Guilford Avenue / Vista Drive

22.  Meredith Street / Cedar Crest Drive

23.  College Avenue / American Avenue

24.  Piedmont Avenue / Princeton Avenue