Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois residents still dealing with power outages

Residents throughout Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois continued to deal with power outages one day after a massive storm downed power lines and caused significant property damage to certain areas.

Approximately 6,900 of Citizens Electric Corp's 27,000 members were without power this afternoon. A press release from the company said that all of its 45 substations and transmission lines were in service. While all members in Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois counties were expected to have power restored by the end of Saturday, the company said it could be four days before restoration is complete in Cape Girardeau and Perry counties.

Cooperatives from Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri are assisting Citizens Electric Corp crews with restoration efforts. The company said crews will work 16 hour days to restore power to their members.

Nearly 13,000 Black River Electric Cooperative members were still without power this afternoon, according to the company's website. Power had been restored to its substations but the a statement on the website that progress continues to be slow because of the large amount of damage. The website reported that other cooperative crews throughout Missouri continue to help with the restoration effort, with 100 extra linemen and 150 tree trimmers assisting in restoration efforts. Repair efforts are expected to last through next week.

About 8,440 AmerenUE customers in Missouri were without power today, a decrease from 14,245 who did not have electricity after the storm hit Friday. Iron and St. Francois counties had the most customers without power, at 3,386 and 3,683 respectively.

Ameren Illinois Utilities vice president of regional operations Ron Pate described damage from the storm as an "inland hurricane" and brought down hundreds of utility poles, slammed trees into transmission lines and destoryed equipment in Carbondale, Marion and other surrounding areas in Illinois. The company said that it had deployed storm trailers in Murphysboro, Sparta and two in Marion. Nearly 56,000 of its customers were in the dark today, including 2994 in Union County.