Ameren Illinois Makes Progress in Storm Restoration, Many Jerseyville Customers Back With Power

May 23, 2019 3:36 PM May 23, 2019 7:40 PM

Listen to the story

JERSEYVILLE – Ameren Illinois reports there are currently 251 customers without power in Jerseyville at 3 p.m. Thursday. Jerseyville was hit hard this morning by a thunderstorm/wind storm.

Get The Latest News!

Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.

"If all goes as planned, we are expecting power to be restored to those customers by 5 p.m. Thursday," Marcelyn Love, a public relations spokesperson for Ameren Illinois, said.

Ameren Illinois crews are working to restore power after an unusually strong line of thunderstorms and damaging winds made their way through the mid-section of the Ameren Illinois service territory yesterday evening and early this morning. The company reports that the severe weather damaged or destroyed more than 230 transmission and distribution structures and poles along a wide band stretching more than 200 miles across.

“We began assessing the damages last night and have mobilized our crews to the hardest hit areas," said Ron Pate, senior vice president of Operations and Technical Services, Ameren Illinois. "Additional line resources from our in-state utility partners and from out-of-state contractors are arriving to assist with restoration. Our focus is on getting the power restored as quickly and safely as possible.”

Article continues after sponsor message

Reach Your Local Community with Us - advertise today!

Ameren Illinois has more than 650 in-house and contractor resources engaged in restoring service. As of 11:40 a.m., 8400 customers were without power. The company activated its Emergency Operations Center at 2:30 a.m. and it will be staffed around-the-clock to coordinate service restoration, logistical support and communications.

“We urge our customers to take precautions to protect themselves and their families, including staying away from downed power lines and immediately reporting any downed lines to Ameren Illinois," said Richard J. Mark, Chairman and President, Ameren Illinois.

Customer Reminders

Ameren Illinois customers without power should call 800-755-5000 to report an outage, log onto the website at AmerenIllinois.com, or report their outage using the mobile phone app. Customers who report their outage are able to sign up for outage alerts to receive text or email restoration updates. Learn more at Ameren.com/alerts.

In addition, safety and real-time outage information is available on the outage map at Ameren.com/outage.

Customers and media also can receive timely updates on outage restoration by following the Ameren Illinois news feed on Facebook or at twitter.com/AmerenIllinois.

Prefer RiverBender on Google