Wind, rain cause more outages, flooding

High winds and steady rains Wednesday brought flooding, damage from fallen power lines and tree limbs, and still more power outages in Southeast Missouri.

Wind gusts reached as high as 46 mph in Cape Girardeau, the result of a deepening low pressure system traveling northeast from Missouri toward the Great Lakes region, according to the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky.

The high winds took down power infrastructures that had been weakened during the ice storm that devastated the region Jan. 27, causing power outages to occur in areas where it had recently been restored after the winter storm.

One on occasion, a felled power line caused a tree off Perryville Road to catch fire, according to the Cape Girardeau Fire Department.

SEMO Electric Cooperative had restored power to all but 691 members by Monday, but the severe weather caused another round of outages, said Glen Cantrell, spokesman for SEMO Electric.

"Things are fluctuating so fast we can't get an accurate number. We make big strides and then we get a big setback," Cantrell said.

Despite the setbacks, Ozark Border Electric cooperative reduced its outage numbers to under 1,000.

About 6,000 AmerenUE customers in Southeast Missouri lost electricity around 5 a.m. Wednesday but had power restored by 8 a.m. Spokesman Mike Cleary said most outages in Cape Girardeau County were likely related to the loss of a 161,000-volt transmission line supplying power to the area that failed at Charleston, Mo., Cleary said. Power was initially restored by switching to an alternate supply.

"We don't know what caused the failure because we checked the line and didn't find any problems, and when we re-energized the line it stayed on," Cleary said.

Cleary said the trouble may have been storm-related because other outages were caused by the storms and high winds that moved through the area. In one case, a 12,000-volt line came down across Interstate 55 at Highway 77 near Benton, he said.

As of Wednesday evening, 440 AmerenUE customers around the state were without power, according to the utility's website. The outages included 198 in Scott County, 20 in Pemiscot County, three in New Madrid County and two in Mississippi County. Only 21 customers in Cape Girardeau County were without power, down significantly from numbers reported earlier in the day.

Marble Hill experienced minor flooding Wednesday morning, when rains forced Crooked Creek over its banks, flooding the city park and several side streets, said Chuck Kernan, maintenance supervisor for the city of Marble Hill.

A flood warning issued for Marble Hill ended at 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Though highways 51 and 34 through town remained clear, Sample, Presnell, Magnolia and Glenn streets were closed for the early part of the day, Kernan said.

By 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, waters had receded to the point where all streets except Sample Street were reopened, Kernan said.

"We get another little bit of rain, it may get up over 34," Kernan said.

The creek was still overflowing, but the floodwaters had dropped considerably by early afternoon.

Sample Street always takes longer to clear than other side streets in town because it's adjacent to the creek and has always had drainage problems, Kernan said.

Twin City Park was also under water, Kernan said.

One laundry had to be closed and all washers and dryers moved because of rising waters, but other than that business, no evacuations were necessary, Kernan said.

According to the weather service, meteorologists predicted a 20 percent chance of showers Thursday for Marble Hill, with winds of up to 18 miles per hour.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

388-3635