Ameren Illinois crews work through night to restore power in Metro East

From Illinois Business Journal news services

COLLINSVILLE – Ameren Illinois field crews and support staff have restored service to more than 37,500 customers following an intense line of thunderstorms and winds that made their way across the Ameren Illinois service territory Thursday night and into early Friday morning.

At the peak of the outage, about 11:10 p.m., nearly 24,800 customers were without power throughout the Ameren Illinois service area. Ameren Illinois activated its Emergency Operations Center at 11 p.m. to coordinate service restoration, logistical support and communications. The EOC will continue to monitor the situation with crews remaining on alert in case of additional severe weather. More storms were anticipated.

The largest outages were in Alton, Maryville, Granite City, East St. Louis and Belleville. The breakdown was: Alton (approximately 10,000), Maryville/Granite City (approximately 1,400), East St. Louis (approximately 9,200) and Belleville (approximately 5,300.) Ameren Illinois crews and contractors were to arrive this morning to assist with the restoration.

All customers are expected to have service restored by midnight, however the majority of them should be have power by 6 p.m., as scattered single outages are expected to persist throughout the day.

“We appreciate the patience our customers have shown, and understand they want their service restored as quickly as possible. We will be working safely throughout the day to achieve this goal,” said Richard J. Mark, president of Ameren Illinois.