ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – Power problems are still an issue for thousands after intense storms over the weekend.
South St. Louis County was one of the hardest hit areas to show the damage. A huge tree came crashing down on Kamper Drive after the intense storms. Meanwhile, Ameren crews are working nonstop to restore power.
After several rounds of high winds and thunderstorms this weekend many customers were left in the dark. Crews have restored service to more than 83,000 customers affected by the recent storms. More than 1,350 crew members are working to restore power. Approximately 96,000 restored to date, and around 2,700 are currently out in St. Louis.
“When Mother Nature calls, we are ready to go these last couple of storms, I would say the most challenging thing is falling trees, domino effect,” said Tommie Bugett with Ameren. “Also broken poles and down wires, when we talk about replacing a pole that could take multiple hours to replace.”
Clean-up is also underway throughout Jefferson County, Maryland Heights, south St. Louis County, and north St. Louis County, especially in the Spanish Lake area, where hundreds of trees were knocked down or toppled over power lines.
Meanwhile, local tree companies’ phones are ringing off the hook. Just from the last two weeks Jay’s Firewood and Mulch Tree Trimming and Removal Service has cut down close to 50 trees.
“Lake St. Louis, Spanish Lake Maryland Heights, south St. Louis County, so lots of removals cutting off houses cars, garages, things like that,” Bugett said. “Continue efforts on restoring our customer’s power as of yesterday, we did experience a second wave of storms increases. But the plan is any customer that experienced outages on Friday will more than likely be restored today.”
Clean-up will continue in south St. Louis County for several days. Ameren would like to remind customers if they see any down power lines, do not go near them or touch them just call Ameren and report it, and they will come out right away and make it safe.