Posted at 10:18 a.m. Electric cooperatives hit by a massive wind storm Friday had cut in half the number of outages a day later as an all-out effort to restore service took place across the Ozarks.
Intercounty Electric reports it has about 2,500 customers without power Saturday morning.
Initially 70,000-plus electric cooperative members were without service in the wake of the spring storm. By Saturday morning, that number was down to around 39,000.
In addition, three transmission cooperatives that provide power to the electric cooperatives also suffered damage to their lines. Sho-Me Power, M&A Power and KAMO Power all reported repairs were complete by Saturday morning with the exception of one substation owned by M&A that serves members of Black River Electric in the Glover area.
Rob Land, who coordinates emergency assistance for the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, says he expects affected co-ops to again cut in half the number of outages as assistance pours into the region from co-ops in Missouri, Arkansas and Kentucky.
“Some of the co-ops will be back on today but for others this will not be a tomorrow type thing,” Land said after checking in with cooperatives
stretching from the Oklahoma border to the Mississippi River.
He said crews were being hampered by fallen trees and flash floods
on creeks and rivers. Repairs will likely stretch into next week for a few
members.
Earlier: More than 70,000 Missouri electric cooperative members are without power following a series of severe spring storms that moved through the Show-Me State overnight and through the early morning hours today.
An estimated 4,000 Intercounty customers are without power as of 3 p.m. In the City of Houston about 80 percent of the community has power, according to information released later this afternoon.
Heavy rain, damaging high winds, lightning and hail downed trees and power lines across the state along a line mirroring Interstate 44 and to the south.
As a result, the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives has enacted its Emergency Assistance Procedures, says Rob Land, AMEC director of risk management and training. As outages occur, electric cooperatives call the association to request help. The association staff coordinates bringing in crews, equipment and supplies from unaffected parts of the state to lend assistance. If the disaster is widespread, cooperatives in other states will also send help.
Land says that due to proximity of the storm damage, requests for assistance have been made to crews in Arkansas as well as north Missouri co-ops.
Although much of the damage was in southern Missouri, it mostly missed those co-ops that suffered during a late January ice storm that left members in some regions without electricity for up to three weeks.