Ameren Illinois Issues Status Update for Power Restoration Effort – 7/3

More than 3,000 Ameren Illinois line, contractor and support personnel are engaged in cleaning up remaining power outages from last week’s severe thunderstorms that battered communities in downstate Illinois. Over the course of three days, electric service to more than 225,000 customers was interrupted due to damages caused by the intense storms.  Ameren Illinois crews have worked around the clock to restore power to approximately 200,000 customers.
“We have restored nearly all of the outages caused by the initial derecho that impacted a wide section of the region on Thursday. Today’s work focuses on restoring outages remaining from the second and third waves of severe weather,” said Lenny Singh, Chairman and President, Ameren Illinois. “We know this has been a challenging time for our customers and no one wants to be without power. Thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding.”
Current Situation (1 PM on July 3)

• Clear skies and no severe weather threats will help the pace of restoration today as crews work to clean up the remaining outages in the territory.   Champaign, Madison, Monroe, Vermillion, St. Clair and Macon counties have the most remaining outages.
  • Several consecutive days of severe weather, including last Thursday’s Derecho with 100+ mph winds, caused extensive damage to electric infrastructure in multiple counties throughout Ameren Illinois’ downstate service territory.
  • As of 1PM on July 3, approximately 21,000 customers are without power in the service territory. See the Ameren outage map for a list of current outages — www.ameren.com/outagemap
  • Approximately 200,000 customer outages have been restored since the storms began on Thursday.
  • Approximately 1,300 poles (sub-transmission and distribution) have been damaged or destroyed.
  • More than 3,000 workers (internal and contractor) are engaged in restoration throughout the Ameren Illinois service territory. Resources from 12 states have aided Ameren Illinois crews.
• Ameren Illinois customers who have reported an outage or signed up for alerts will receive notification on the status of their individual outage. Go to AmerenIllinois.com/outage.
• If a home or business has been damaged by severe storms, the customer may need to make specific repairs before Ameren can restore power. Learn more here: Storm Damage to Weatherheads on Vimeo

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