News Releases

Ameren Illinois crews have safely restored power to more than 54,000 customers and will continue to work throughout the day after Thursday's storms and high winds caused outages across the company’s service territory. As of 8:00 this morning, only 147 Ameren Illinois customers remain without power.

The largest areas without power were in Adams, Madison, St. Clair, Champaign, Sangamon, Shelby and Macon counties, but wind-related outages were scattered throughout the Ameren Illinois service territory. In addition, the winds were strong enough in some areas to topple transmission lines.

Ameren Illinois activated its Emergency Operations Center at 4:30 p.m. Thursday to coordinate all restoration efforts.

“Our crews went on alert status at 6:45 a.m. Thursday morning,” said Richard J. Mark, president and CEO of Ameren Illinois. “When Mother Nature decided to hit us with series of intense storms with straight-line winds beginning in Quincy and the Metro East area and moving across our service territory, we were immediately able to dispatch field personnel to assess damage but the continual wind gusts initially made it difficult to repair downed lines."

“Please remember, it is hard to tell the difference between an Ameren Illinois electric line and a telephone line or cable line. Treat any line as an energized and dangerous line and stay away from it,” Mark added. “If you see a downed power line, please call us 800-755-5000 to report it.”

Customer safety tips

• Stay away from downed power lines and always call our customer service number, 800-755-5000 if you see downed lines.
   

• Never go outside during a power outage after sunset because you won't be able to see a downed power line that could still be energized and dangerous. Stay away from brush, shrubs and downed trees that may hide downed lines.
   
• Detailed safety and outage information is available at IllinoisOutage.com. Customers with mobile devices can visit www.ameren.mobi. Customers can also sign up for text or email notifications once an outage has been reported. Visit Ameren.com/alerts.

In addition to the safety and outage information available at IllinoisOutage.com, customers and media can receive timely updates on outage restoration by following the Ameren Illinois news feed at twitter.com/AmerenIllinois or Facebook.

About Ameren Illinois

Ameren Illinois delivers energy to 1.2 million electric and 806,000 natural gas customers in downstate Illinois, and our mission is to power the quality of life. Our service territory covers more than 1,200 communities and 43,700 square miles. For more information, visit AmerenIllinois.com.  Follow us on Twitter @AmerenIllinois and Facebook.

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