Ameren Illinois is now estimating it will take up to Saturday evening to get power restored to all customers in Centralia following damage caused by severe thunderstorms Friday morning.
Ameren’s Brian Bretsch says they are calling in extra resources from IP from the Peoria, Galesburg, LaSalle, and Washington areas as well as outside crews from Missouri, Ohio, and West Virginia to try and get the power back on as quickly as possible.
As of three pm, 17 percent of the customers in the Centralia zip code, or 1,141 customers, were listed without power.
Ameren reports 35 percent, or 1,141 customers, off in Salem and 13 percent, or 1,235 customers, without power in Mt. Vernon. No time estimation has yet been made when all Salem and Mt. Vernon customers will have power restored.
Tri-County Electric reports as of 3 pm, 137 customers in Marion County and 70 in Jefferson County remain without power. All are in isolated areas with restoration expected to continue into the evening hours. The 506 in the Selmaville area got power back on around one pm.
Public works crews in cities across the region have also been busy trying to get streets reopened following downed trees and tree limbs.
The storms dumped 65-hundredths of an inch of rain on Centralia and 22-hundredths of an inch on Salem. The Alma Weather Station reported 57-hundredths of an inch of rain and a top wind speed of 50 miles per hour at 6:07 Friday morning.
