1,400 Ameren Illinois Utilities Personnel Working to Get Electricity Flowing for 30,000 Customers; Lights now on for 15,000 as R
December 19 2008 - 6:03PM
PR Newswire (US)
PEORIA, Ill., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Ameren Illinois
Utilities have assigned 1,400 workers and outside contractor
personnel from across Illinois continue to massive effort to
restore electrical service to nearly 30,000 customers in Central
Illinois. A winter storm that coated power lines, trees and roads
with as much as three quarters of an inch of ice caused outages for
as many as 45,000 customers from the Mississippi River to the
Indiana border, including such cities as Macomb, Peoria,
Bloomington, Lincoln and Watseka. The heavy ice accumulations
caused electrical wires to fall, damaged utility system equipment
and sent large tree limbs crashing into power lines. Stronger winds
during the daylight hours hampered service restoration efforts
today, causing additional outages in many areas. Strong winds can
damage ice coated power lines and can cause icy tree limbs to break
and fall into power lines. Ameren Illinois Utilities field crews,
aided by a small army of support personnel, are working 16 straight
hours before resting in order to restore service safely and in the
shortest possible time. Falling temperatures during the afternoon
hours and heavy ice accumulations have made working conditions
extremely difficult and hazardous. In order to maximize the service
restoration effort, the Ameren Illinois Utilities have partnered
with Western Illinois University and at least 15 hotels to provide
350 sleeping rooms for Friday night. These rooms are needed to
house crews when they take needed rest periods. In addition, the
utilities are working with five food vendors to supply box lunches
for service restoration workers. If weather conditions do not
deteriorate any further and cause additional damage, Ameren
Illinois Utilities officials believe service will be restored to
nearly all customers by tomorrow evening. Further reductions in the
number of service outages are expected to continue during the
nighttime hours. Thick ice and falling tree limbs have caused
outage numbers to fluctuate. The Ameren Illinois Utilities began
experiencing significant outages at about 11:00 p.m. Thursday.
Outage numbers continued to climb until dawn. If residents see
downed wires, they should immediately call 1-888-672-5252 for
AmerenCILCO, 1-888-789-2477 for AmerenCIPS and 1-800-755-7000 for
AmerenIP. "The first safety rule is to stay away from downed power
lines and always call us or '911' if you see downed lines," said
Bill Prebil, Ameren Illinois Utilities vice president of Regional
Operations. "Never go outside in the dark because you won't be able
to see a downed power line that could still be energized and
dangerous. Stay away from brush, shrubs and downed trees that may
hide downed lines." In addition, some customers may need the
services of an electrical contractor 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. The Ameren Illinois utilities serve 1.2
million electric and more than 800,000 natural gas customers in a
43,700-square-mile area of Illinois. Editor's Note: for current
information on the restoration effort, please visit
http://www.illinoisoutage.com/ DATASOURCE: The Ameren Illinois
Utilities CONTACT: Leigh E. Morris, +1-217-416-9609, or Victoria
Busch, +1-618-614-3032, or Neal Johnson, +1-309-677-5284, After
5:00 p.m. & Weekends, +1-217-424-6400, all of The Ameren
Illinois Utilities Web site: http://www.ameren.com/
http://www.illinoisoutage.com/
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