News Releases

Ameren Illinois employees are fully engaged to meet the challenges of a winter storm that continues to dump snow mixed with wind gusts as the company assesses pockets of outages across eastern and southern Illinois.

Ron Pate, senior vice president of Operations and Technical Services, Ameren Illinois, said the company has been monitoring the weather system for several days and placed employees and electric utility contractors on alert status at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning. The company activated the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at 6:00 a.m.

“We are assessing the damage and deploying the personnel and supplies necessary to begin the job of service restoration,” Pate said. “Our first priority will be to correct potentially life-threatening situations. We will work closely with hospitals, police and fire departments, and local emergency officials to update lists of critical facilities that are without power. We then implement power restoration plans focused on restoring power for the greatest number of customers in the shortest length of time.”

“Safety is our first and foremost concern when severe weather strikes,” said Ameren Illinois President Richard Mark. “The most important safety rule is to stay clear of downed power lines and always call Ameren Illinois at 1-800-755-5000, if you see downed lines.”

“If any member of your family has a medical condition, plan and make arrangements to have that person’s special needs met in the event electricity is not available for an extended period of time during a storm,” Mark added.

In addition, Ameren Illinois encourages customers use the following tips on preparing for severe weather:

• Stay away from downed power lines because these lines may still be energized. During an outage, individuals are asked to stay indoors after sunset because downed lines may not be visible. Stay away from brush, shrubs and fallen trees that may be hiding these lines.
• If your electric service is interrupted, unplug or protect sensitive computer and electronic equipment with a high-quality surge protector.
• Make certain your cell phone is fully charged. Also, remember that cordless land line telephones will not function in the event of a power outage.

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

About Ameren Illinois

Ameren Illinois delivers energy to 1.2 million electric and 816,000 natural gas customers throughout central and southern Illinois. Our service territory covers more than 1,200 communities and 43,700 square miles and our mission is to power the quality of life. For more information, visit AmerenIllinois.com.  Follow us on Twitter @AmerenIllinois and Facebook.

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