While about 850 field and support personnel work to restore electric service, Ameren Illinois has opened a special Customer Service Center at the Quincy City Hall in cooperation with the city to assist area residents.
Customers who do not have access to phone service or who simply want to discuss an issue in person are encouraged visit the Customer Service Center. The center will remain open until 7:00 p.m. today.
“Safety is our first and foremost concern when severe weather strikes,” said Ron Pate, vice president of Operations for Ameren Illinois.
“The most important safety rule is to stay clear of downed power lines and always call Ameren Illinois at 1-800-755-5000 or ‘911’ if you see downed lines. Assume all downed power lines are energized. Stay inside, especially at night because you may walk into an energized power line. Stay clear of brush, shrubs and downed trees that may hide downed lines,” Pate said.
As of 8:30 a.m. today, about 16,000 Quincy area residents are still without electrical service. At the peak of the outages yesterday, about 30,500 customers were without power.
It is anticipated a significant number of Quincy residents and businesses will have their service restored today with the majority of the restoration work being completed by Wednesday evening. Some individual, isolated outages are expected to persist into Thursday.
In order to meet the challenge caused by the storm damage, Ameren Illinois has brought in co-workers from throughout its Illinois service territory as well as Ameren Missouri. In addition, Ameren Illinois is utilizing contractor crews from Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Ameren Illinois expects to complete service restoration work in Camp Point, Clayton, Columbus and Ursa by early afternoon today. Other outlying communities are expected to have power restored by early evening.
Some customers may need to make repairs to the electric service facilities they own, such as the meter base, weatherhead or point of attachment. This work should be performed by a professional electrical contractor. These repairs must be completed before service can be safely restored. A detailed explanation of this work is available at IllinoisOutage.com or customers may call 1-800-755-5000 for assistance. Customers also may visit the special Ameren Illinois Customer Service Center at Quincy City Hall.
“Safety is our first and foremost concern when severe weather strikes,” said Ron Pate, vice president of Operations for Ameren Illinois.
“The most important safety rule is to stay clear of downed power lines and always call Ameren Illinois at 1-800-755-5000 or ‘911’ if you see downed lines. Assume all downed power lines are energized. Stay inside, especially at night because you may walk into an energized power line. Stay clear of brush, shrubs and downed trees that may hide downed lines,” Pate said.
Customers planning to use a portable generator must first open the main breaker or remove the main fuses before connecting the generator to the electrical systems. Failure to do this could seriously injure utility crews working on outside power lines, and/or it could cause damage to a neighbor's property or the customer's own equipment. Customers should never use a portable generator indoors, including in a home, garage, basement, shed or partially-enclosed area – even with ventilation because of the threat of deadly carbon monoxide poisoning.
Complete outage information is available at IllinoisOutage.com. The website site also includes safety and weather information.
Those using mobile devices are invited to visit www.Ameren.Mobi for outage information. This site is specially designed for mobile devices.
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Ameren Illinois delivers energy to 1.2 million electric and 813,000 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.
Contacts: Leigh Morris, 1-214-535-5228, lmorris@ameren.com; Victoria Busch, 1-618-346-1286, vbusch@ameren.com; Neal Johnson, 1-309-677-5284, njohnson@ameren.com