PEORIA, SPRINGFIELD and DECATUR, Ill., Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 850 workers have been assigned to restore electrical service to Ameren Illinois utility customers in and around Jacksonville and in Cass, Menard, Pike and Scott counties.
At 3:30 p.m. today, approximately 4,950 customers in Jacksonville and other Morgan County communities are still without power. About 2,250 additional customers remain without service primarily in Cass, Menard, Pike and Scott counties. Ameren Illinois utilities estimate the majority of the outages will be restored to service by midnight today unless there is further damage due to icing, wind or other weather conditions. Outages had been reduced to about 5,000 late Monday, but began rising early Tuesday and peaked at about 17,000 customers.
"Our effort to restore service safely to our customers has been hampered by weather conditions that have prevented ice from melting off of trees and power lines," said Steve Bradshaw, manager of Ameren Illinois Division II. "Last night, more tree limbs fell into electrical lines, resulting in additional outages and potentially hazardous situations.
"Our linemen and other personnel will continue to work long hours under adverse conditions until every customer has service restored. We deeply appreciate the understanding our customers have shown during this very difficult period."
Due to the ice storm's extensive damage to the electric service entrances at some customers' homes, the services of an electrical contractor may be required to reattach or repair customer-owned facilities, such as the meter base, weatherhead or point of attachment. See http://www.ameren.com/ for a diagram showing this arrangement.
If a customer notices damage to these facilities, the customer should contact an electrical contractor to make repairs so utility workers can safely restore service. Not repairing this damage could delay restoration to the customer's home. (Click here to see a diagram.)
If residents see downed wires, they should immediately call their Ameren Illinois utility (AmerenCIPS - 1-888-789-2477; AmerenIP - 1-800-755-5000, and AmerenCILCO - 1-888-672-5252) or "911."
The Ameren Illinois utilities serve 1.2 million electric and more than 840,000 natural gas customers in a 43,700-square-mile area of Illinois.
SOURCE: Ameren Illinois utilities
CONTACT: Leigh Morris, +1-217-535-5228, Erica Abbett, +1-618-236-4329,
Natalie Hemmer, +1-217-424-7541, or Neal Johnson, +1-309-677-5284, all for
Ameren Illinois utilities
Web site: http://www.ameren.com/