STORM-INTERRUPTED POWER EXPECTED TO BE RESTORED TO ALL TODAY

Cleanup operations continued Monday throughout storm-ravaged areas of Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois, even as more severe weather may threaten the region later today.

Utility officials said electricity was expected to be completely restored by today to customers in the path of the storms that raced Friday through northern Butler, Stoddard and Scott counties and southern Cape Girardeau County.

Meanwhile, local tree service companies say they have been swamped with telephone calls since Friday. Some said it will be a week to 10 days before they can respond to all of the calls.

Spokesmen for Union Electric Co. in Cape Girardeau and the Scott-New Madrid-Mississippi Electric Cooperative in Sikeston said Monday the line of severe thunderstorms that passed through the area with winds of 75-90 mph were the most costly in 15-25 years in terms of damage to poles, utility lines and transformers.

Chester Kordahl, operations supervisor for Scott-New Madrid-Mississippi Co-op at Sikeston, said it was the worst summer storm he's seen in 25 years. "We've had damage from isolated severe storms and tornadoes, but this was much more widespread," he said. After the storm struck, an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 of the co-op's customers were without power, Kordahl reported.

"We sustained severe damage to our equipment in a five-mile-wide path across northern Stoddard and Scott counties and southern Cape Girardeau County," he said. "To the north of Delta, there was spotty damage and outages in our service area in Cape County.

"For 20 to 30 miles south of the path of severe damage, we had moderate damage to our equipment and moderate to spotty power outages."

Kordahl said other electric co-ops sent crews into the storm-damaged areas to assist his repair crews.

"We had crews come in from Citizens Electric, Black River Electric Co-op and the Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Co-op. We used everybody we could get. They worked about 30 hours Friday afternoon and all day Saturday, then we dropped back to 18 hours a day on Sunday and Monday. By Tuesday everyone who did not sustain damage to the service trim on their homes should have power again."

Kordahl said buildings with damage to the service trim must have it repaired by an electrician before the utility company can turn on power.

Bob Robins of UE in Cape Girardeau said all UE customers in Southeast Missouri affected by the storm had power back by Saturday night, with the exception of those with service trim damaged.

Robins said about 19,500 UE customers in Cape Girardeau, Cape Girardeau County and the north half of Scott County were affected by the power outages as a result of the severe thunderstorms. He said scattered power outages occurred in parts of Cape Girardeau. Complete outages occurred in Scott City, Chaffee, Benton, Commerce, and Delta after distribution lines and poles were felled by high winds or falling trees and limbs.

Robins said UE crews from St. Louis, Charleston and Hayti were called in Friday afternoon to help local crews repair damaged poles, lines and transformers so service could be restored. As many as 107 UE employees, including linesmen and support people, worked until late Saturday night, Robins said.

"The crews worked through the night Friday and all day Saturday to get the power back on, but we still have a lot of clean up work to do," he reported. "We had to set a lot new poles and replace a lot of pole transformers that were damaged or destroyed by lightning. All of that takes time."

Robins said in some instances, repair crews were able to reconfigure circuits so power could be restored to a larger number of customers, leaving only three or four customers without power near the downed power lines and poles.

Robins said after a second line of severe thunderstorms moved through the Missouri Bootheel on Friday evening, the Hayti crew that was working in this area was sent home so they could restore power in Hayti, Steele and Portageville. After getting the power back on there, Robins said the crew came back to this area.

Robins said Friday's storm was the worst in terms of area affected and damage to UE property since the February 1979 snowstorm that buried parts of the area under two feet of snow.

"We had to set 43 new poles and mount 18 new pole transformers. Nineteen of our substations were temporarily down due to lightning opening the circuit breakers, but none of the station's transformers were damaged and we had them back in operation as soon as the breakers could be closed," he said.

Local tree service companies say they have been inundated with phone calls since Friday afternoon from people who have trees on or in their homes, garages and cars.

Dennis Craft of A-1 Tree Service of rural Chaffee said he has received 90-100 calls.

"We had more than 30 calls right after the storm ended, and more on Saturday," said Craft. "Our phone started ringing at 6:30 a.m. Sunday. The calls have come in from Sikeston, Oran, Chaffee, Benton, Scott City, Commerce, Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Advance and Bloomfield," he reported. "We worked all day Saturday and Sunday. Right now, we're working from sunup to sundown."

Craft said the damage is the worst he's seen as far as the wide area that was affected.

A spokesman for Cape Tree Service said they're handling all calls on a priority basis. "If someone has a tree or limb on or in their house, or a tree that threatens property damage, we'll take care of them first, then handle the calls to remove trees from cars or backyards," said Jane Freeman. "I didn't think the storm was that bad until the phones started ringing late Friday morning. We're still getting phone calls."

Cape Girardeau Public Works Director Doug Leslie said crews began picking up limbs and debris from Friday's storm on Monday.

"We ask that residents place their limbs at curbside for pickup," he said. "If there are large limbs, please cut them so that two men can handle them. As an alternative, residents can take the limbs to the transfer station north of the cement plant. We'll accept them without charge. We have waived the dumping fee for storm-related debris.