Efforts to restore electricity to nearly 160,000 Missouri households should get a boost from the weather with precipitation finally tapering off and sunshine back in the forecast.

AmerenUE reports a bit more than 13,000 households remain without power from Sunday’s ice storm, nearly 6,000 in Jefferson City. Ameren’s Mike Cleary says the ice really wrecked the system. He says the extreme amount of damage and the large amount of repairs that must be made are holding things up.

Aquila reports that nearly 47,000 customers remain without power this morning in wake of the second storm that hit the state. Aquila’s Al Butkus is looking forward to a better weather forecast as the Kansas City-based utility sends extra crews to St. Joseph, which took the brunt of the second storm.

Empire Electric of Joplin reports 42,000 customers remain without power. The Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives reports the various rural electric co-ops have nearly 47,000 still without electricity and Kansas City Power and Light reports fewer than 10,000 do not have power. The total number of Missouri households without electricity Wednesday morning totaled 158,713.

One aspect could hold up homeowners hoping to have power restore. Damage at the household might prevent the utility from getting power restore. Ameren says it is up to the homeowner to make repairs to such things as the meter base, weatherhead or point of attachment, which all could have been damaged by a power line pulling them away from the house.

Ameren has a diagram on its Web site to help customers determine if they need to contact an electrical contractor to make repairs before the lights can be turned back on. 

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)