A large power outage has left more than 9,000 residents in Marion and Clinton County without power Sunday morning.
Ameren spokesperson Tucker Kennedy says the outage began at 6:52 Sunday morning when a problem developed on a major transmission line that runs between Centralia and Belleville. He reports the problem turned out to be a tree limb falling across the line. It was repaired around 11:30 Sunday morning
Kennedy says customers didn’t have to wait for the problem to be discovered and repaired. Most were switched in phases to service from other power lines. He reports that is being done in phases and will allow many customers to get back online before the problem is repaired.
Ameren at 9 am was reporting 1,630 customers in Marion County and 7,251 in Clinton County without power. 1,237 of those were in the Centralia zip code area and most of the rest in Clinton County.
At three Sunday afternoon, Marion County still had 293 without electricity including 56 in the Centralia zip code. Most of those are believed to be from trees falling into other power lines. Just five remained without power in Clinton County at three pm.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Department has reported some down tree limbs from the wind that have fallen across power lines.
After wind gusts of more than 45 miles per hour earlier Sunday, wind speeds are expected to calm down.
