Reconnecting: More power restored but many outages remain in the area

SIKESTON -- Although power was restored to much of the region Wednesday, thousands of residents remain without electricity after an ice storm moved through southeast Missouri early this week.

About 80 Sikeston Board of Municipal Utilities customers were still without power Wednesday morning but most were expected to regain power by evening -- and at the very latest, this morning, said Wayne McSpadden, operations manager for Sikeston BMU.

"We're doing a whole lot better today than yesterday," McSpadden said Wednesday afternoon.

Of the residences that didn't have power restored, McSpadden said those were probably homes that were damaged, and the owners haven't been able to get an electrician to check them out yet. He said the city's year-round tree trimming program was really instrumental in keeping the damage the city did have to a minimum.

Crews for SEMO Electric Cooperative also continued their work Wednesday to reconnect about 4,500 members following Monday and Tuesday's winter ice storm. Sixteen crews are working in different areas to connect main lines first and then will work on individual homes.

By 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, 2,438 SEMO Electric members were still without power with Bloomfield, Bell City and Advance being the hardest hit areas, said Glen Cantrell, SEMO Electric communications manager.

At one point during the outage, it was estimated nearly 8,000 members were without power. The ice storm knocked down lines due to the weight of the ice on the lines, and lines were being knocked down due to tree limbs or entire trees falling over on the lines.

"We continue to ask our members to be patient," Cantrell said. "We know this is a trying time for our members, and our crews are working nonstop to restore power to them."

SEMO Electric Cooperative crews have worked with eight crews from outside the area. Office staff has also stayed overnight to make sure all calls are taken so that all outages can be reported.

Over the past few days, SEMO Electric has received a few thousand phone calls from members reporting their outages and asking when service will be established.

"We simply can't give anyone a specific time that the electricity will be restored," Cantrell said. "At this point we know every line that is off line and we will have them restored as soon as possible."

On Wednesday the number of lineworkers, tree-trimming contractors and other support personnel dispatched by AmerenUE exceeded 1,100.

On Tuesday, more than 15,000 AmerenUE customers in southeast Missouri were without power, primarily in an area extending from about Dexter through Cape Girardeau to Charleston. As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, the number of customers without power stood at 6,000.

Expectations were that the majority of customers would be restored by end of day Wednesday. However, restoration efforts will continue through today and possibly into Friday.

Jean Mason, manager of AmerenUE's SEMO Division, says power restoration efforts continue to be hampered by frigid temperatures and a heavy coating of ice that remains on treesand power lines--causing new outages to continue to occur.

AmerenUE has set up three "storm trailers" stocked with materials needed to make repairs, along with a Mobile Command Center to help coordinate power restoration.

"We continue to appreciate our customers' patience as we work to get their power back on," Mason says.

Just as utility crews are beginning to make progress, the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky., is calling for a 50 percent chance of snow with a high near 35 degrees Friday. The low is expected to be 21 with a 30 percent chance of snow after midnight. There's also chance for freezing rain Saturday night.

"Things are starting to thaw out," McSpadden said. "And, hopefully, we won't get some of the bad weather they're calling for on Friday so we can get some of these trees back up where they belong."