24,000 customers still without power in Missouri as crews rebuild infrastructure

As the fallout of a devastating ice storm enters its second week, about 24,200 homes and businesses in the region still are without power.

The number Tuesday included 1,500 who get their service from AmerenUE, 16,500 who belong to rural cooperatives and 6,200 served by municipal utilities.

About 65 percent of Sikeston, Mo., had power Tuesday night, according to the Board of Municipal Utilities. The board's office stayed open until 8 p.m. Tuesday to field questions about the power restoration.

For those wondering why it's taking so long to restore power to southern Missouri, the man who assembles repair crews had three words Tuesday.

"There's nothing left," said Mike Conyers, state coordinator for mutual aid.

Conyers, who also trains electrical linemen for the Missouri Public Utilities Alliance, said last week's ice storm destroyed the infrastructure that delivers electricity.

"The whole infrastructure has to be brought up," he said. "It's all broken laying on the ground."

Worse yet, Conyers learned Tuesday that crews from an out-of-state power association may not arrive to rebuild southern Missouri's crumpled transmission lines for another week, and that it could take 45 days to rebuild them.

But municipal utilities aren't standing by idly until then. Their crews are re-establishing electric poles, attaching lines to houses, and getting things ready to go.

Still, there's another problem: "There aren't enough electricians to go around," Conyers said. "We're waiting on electricians."

Conyers predicted it would be a long time before power is restored to everyone.

The Missouri National Guard was delivering food, water and blankets, and going door to door checking on people's welfare in hard-hit New Madrid County.

It also dispatched help for some elderly people who were running low on oxygen.

In Sikeston, the Guard arranged help for a 70-year-old man who refused to leave his home despite 40-degree temperatures inside. Between emergency personnel and neighbors, the man was checked every hour.

National Guard specialist Daniel Cummings, 34, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., said he just returned from duty in rural Ripley County, where he encountered residents who hadn't eaten in three days and who were left to drink melted snow.

The Guard arranged to transport residents to shelters, but many elderly people insisted on staying home, afraid to leave their farm animals and pets behind.

"Some didn't want to go," Cummings said, "so we checked on them daily."

But in other ways, life was starting to return to normal. In many stricken counties, shelter operations were winding down and schools were planning to reopen later in the week.

Ozark Border Electric Cooperative restored power to nearly 1,000 customers Monday, but 4,300 were starting their second week in the dark.

"We are making good progress, but what is left is tough to do," manager Stanley Estes said Tuesday. Ozark Border had peak outages of more than 28,000.

Those customers without electricity include an estimated 2,500 in Dunklin County, 800 in Butler County, 500 in Stoddard County, 500 in Ripley County and 10 on Route C in western Carter County.

Estes said 52 workers from contractors arrived Monday and 21 more were expected to arrive Tuesday to help.

Crews are building lines to feed power into the Malden and Campbell areas. Estes said he was told Monday that it may be five to seven days before a transmission line is restored that provides power to the substation serving the Malden/Campbell area.

SEMO Electric Cooperative, which serves parts of Stoddard County, restored power to another 2,500 customers throughout its service area, reducing the outages to 5,500.

Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative has reduced its outages from 7,000 to 6,000.

Staff writer Bridget DiCosmo and the Daily American Republic contributed to this report.