After battling weather and hazardous working conditions throughout the past two days, Ameren Illinois field crews and support staff have restored service to 94 percent of all customers.
As of 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, about 7,500 customers were without power, mostly concentrated in the hard-hit areas of Washington, Pekin, Bloomington, Danville and Gifford.
Estimated safe restoration times for all customers in Pekin, Groveland, Roanoke, East Peoria, Bloomington, Danville, Tuscola and Pana is the end of the day today. Restoration work is also in progress for customers in Washington and Gifford and both areas are expected to have service by the end of the day on Wednesday.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the storm,” said Richard J. Mark, President and CEO, Ameren Illinois. “These are our communities, where we live and work, and we have come together with the Governor’s office, local officials, the emergency responders and relief agencies to meet the needs of these communities. We have made tremendous progress and truly appreciate the patience of our customers as we work through the remaining outages.”
At the peak of the outage, more than 148,000 customers were without power throughout the Ameren Illinois service area.
Reporting an Outage
If your power goes out, call Ameren Illinois at any time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week – and always call as soon as possible to report a downed line or natural gas odor. The Ameren Illinois contact number is 800-755-5000. 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.
Extended Outage Safety Tips
Food Safety
If in doubt, throw it out.
Keep your refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible – this will keep foods cold for about four hours. A full freezer will keep the temperature for about 48 hours if the door remains closed. A freezer that is half full will keep the temperature for about 24 hours. Be sure to keep meat, seafood and dairy products as cold as possible. Discard any perishable food that has been above 40 degrees for over two hours. If it looks like the power outage will continue beyond a day, prepare a cooler with ice for your freezer items. Generally, the following items can be kept on a countertop: Jams and jellies, butter and margarine, ketchup, mustard, pickles, relish and similar condiments, and fresh uncut fruits and vegetables. For more guidelines visit foodSafety.gov.
Portable Generator Safety
Customers who use portable generators during a power outage must remember that they can become deadly when not used properly. Those who install a portable generator should also install a safety disconnect switch to prevent the electricity produced by the generator from feeding back into the utility lines. Never plug a generator directly into an outlet to power a home.
Back feeding electricity into utility lines thought to be de-energized could result in damage to property. More seriously, back fed power poses an unseen hazard to utility personnel who are working on the power lines. In the event power is back fed into downed power lines, anyone coming into contact with those lines could be seriously injured or killed. Portable generators also must never be operated inside a garage or other building as generator engines produce deadly carbon monoxide.
Ameren Illinois delivers energy to 1.2 million electric and 806,000 natural gas customers in downstate Illinois, and our mission is to meet their energy needs in a safe, reliable, efficient and environmentally responsible manner. Our service area covers more than 1,200 communities and 43,700 square miles. For more information, visit AmerenIllinois.com. Follow us on Twitter -@AmerenIllinois.
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