Published: Jan. 25, 2023 at 2:51 AM CST|Updated: Jan. 27, 2023 at 8:00 PM CST
(KFVS) - The numbers are going down, but dozens of people in southeast Missouri are still waiting for the lights to come back on.
Crews are making progress in restoring power to customers after Tuesday night’s and Wednesday morning’s winter storm hit the Heartland.
Heavy, wet snow and gusty winds were to blame.
Electric cooperatives said heavy snow accumulations caused trees and limbs to fall into power lines, resulting in broken poles and downed wires.
Customers may also experience power “blinks,” as snow-covered branches come into contact with power lines.
More than 7,700 customers in southeast Missouri and 2,000 customers in southern Illinois were without power throughout Wednesday.
Power has since been restored in southern Illinois.
As of 8 p.m. Friday, dozens of customers remain without electricity in southeast Missouri.
The following is a list of outages by county posted online by electric providers:
Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives
- Bollinger County: 12 customers
- Butler County: 1 customer
- Madison County: 42 customers
- Reynolds County: 68 customers
- Wayne County: 158 customers
According to the Cuivre River Electric Cooperative, they sent 12 linemen to help the Black River Electric Cooperative restore power.
Black River Electric Co-op serves customers in Madison, Bollinger, Iron, Perry, Wayne, Reynolds, St. Francois and Cape Girardeau Counties in the Heartland and also customers in Shannon and Dent Counties.
Black River Electric says the winter storm caused the largest outage in their 85 years of business. More than 4,500 outages were reported at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
The co-op expects to have power restored to all their Wayne County customers by the end of the weekend.
Citizens Electric Corporation restored power to all of their customers by 4 p.m. Thursday. The co-op said outages were widespread and crews faced possible timber clearing and other unique challenges.
The electric provider stated crews responded to more than 2,700 outages.
The co-op was assisted by 30 outside contractors, as well as two crews from Gascosage Electric Cooperative.
Crews from Gascosage also assisted Black River Electric Co-op with restoration efforts.
Citizens serves customers in Perry, Ste. Genevieve, eastern St. Francois and northern Cape Girardeau Counties.
Ozark Border Electric Cooperative is also in the process of restoring power to their customers in Butler, Carter and Ripley Counties.
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