Power outage affects nearly 1,500 Ameren customers in Cape Girardeau

Nearly 1,500 customers of AmerenUE in the Cape Girardeau area were without power for about two hours Friday afternoon, but by 6 p.m. power had been restored to all but 29 of those customers, according to the utility's website.

At the outage's height, 1,476 customers were without power.

Mike Cleary, communications executive for AmerenUE, said customers began losing power around 3:30 p.m. due to a splice that failed on an overhead power line near Independence Street and Minnesota Avenue.

High temperatures reach the mid-90s in the Cape Girardeau area during the outage, with a heat index near 115.

The Osage Community Centre was opened as a temporary cooling shelter for those without power.