Thousands without power in storm

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- High winds have caused thousands of people to be without power in parts of Missouri and Illinois.

St. Louis-based Ameren said that 5,275 residential and business customers were without power Wednesday afternoon in Missouri. The hardest hit areas are St. Louis city and county, Wentzville, Franklin, St. Charles.es.

Another 7,200 of Ameren's customers in Illinois are without electricity. The utility said the most outages were reported in the Champaign, Belleville, Maryville areas.

The Southeast Missourian reported Wednesday morning that 1,000 customers of Citizens Electric Cooperative also are without power because of high winds, mostly in the cooperative's Altenburg/Fruitland district. That number was down to about 200 late in the morning.

Kansas City Power & Light reported only scattered power outages in its service areas in northwest Missouri.