The Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives report the power is still out for about 11,100 of its customers after storms pounded the southern half of the state Friday.
Spokesman Bob McEwen says there were about 70,000 co-op customers without power, spread out across 20 cooperatives, Friday.
McEwen says some areas where multiple trees and poles were snapped, mixed with flash flooding and muddy conditions is make restoration more difficult.
Everyone’s expected to be back online by the end of the week, but Wednesday’s forecast has crews keeping an eye on the weather. More storms could be headed our way, adding to the delays.
AMEC reports more than a thousand poles were broken in the Black River co-op area, some sections where 40 or more poles are snapped in a row. Trees, large ones, are completely uprooted.
Work continues to restore power for about 1,900 residents in the Perryville and Altenburg areas.
As is the case throughout southern Missouri, most of the damage in Citizens’ service territory is attributed to fallen trees.
"We saw a lot of trees that were actually uprooted – some really big oak trees — that look like the hand of God came down and pulled them out by the roots and tossed them into the road," says Barb Casper, manager of member services for Citizens’ 26,000-member system.
Licking-based Intercounty Electric Cooperative also saw nearly 10,000 members without power following the May 8 storm. As of Tuesday morning, power is still out to 1,200 members there.
Restoration work is nearly complete at West Plains-based Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative and Bolivar-Based Southwest Electric Cooperative, which each report about 50 members without power Tuesday morning. Mansfield-based Se-Ma-No Electric Cooperative restored service to all members Monday evening.
During power outage emergencies, Missouri¹s electric cooperatives reach out to other co-ops in unaffected areas for help. The Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives has dispatched more than 230 cooperative linemen from Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Illinois to assist in recovery efforts, says AMEC Director of Risk Management and Training Rob Land.
To view AMEC’s interactive map on outages throughout the state, visit: http://www.amec.org/IceStormInfoCtr/AffectedSystems.html
Jessica Machetta interviews Bob McEowen [Download/listen MP3]
