A major power line just outside the Ameren Texas substation southwest of Salem led to a major power outage early Sunday morning for some Ameren and Tri-County Electric customers in Marion County.
The problem began at 3:40 and wasn’t corrected until 5:10 a.m. for some Tri-County customers and 8 a.m. for some Ameren customers.
The Tri-County outage affected an estimated 3,000 customers served by the Salem, South Salem, and Iuka substations.
Ameren reports about 1,200 total customers lost power, including 500 in the Odin area, 360 in Centralia, and 260 in Kell. Many more were affected when power ‘blinked’ before automatically switching to a different line.
The outage also set off several fire alarm systems, with the Salem Fire Protection District called to Walmart, XPO, and Salem Township Hospital.
