For immediate release

Jan. 28, 2009 — 10:20 a.m.

Situation worsens for southern Missouri electric cooperatives

View the latest information about Missouri co-op systems affected by winter storms.

With up to an inch of ice clinging to power lines and trees, electric cooperatives across southern Missouri are seeing massive outages on their lines. Virtually the entire Bootheel region was in darkness Wednesday morning, Jan. 28, as the transmission lines feeding substations went down.

Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric, Hayti, and Ozark Border Electric, Poplar Bluff, reported their entire system without power. SEMO Electric, Sikeston, had 10,000 outages. In all, around 63,000 Missourians served by electric cooperatives were without power.

In the sandy soil of the Bootheel, poles fell like dominoes under the weight of the ice. Pemiscot-Dunklin alone has more than 1,000 poles down.

In the south-central Ozarks, some progress was made overnight with White River Valley, Branson, restoring power to more than 1,000 members between 9 p.m. Tuesday and 4 a.m. Wednesday. 4,000 remain without power, with most of the outages centered around Ozark County. Howell-Oregon Electric based in West Plains saw outage numbers shoot up to 11,500 overnight.

Crews at the affected systems are working around the clock to restore power. They are being assisted by hundreds of fresh crews from central and north Missouri. If necessary, additional support from other states will be called called upon.

“We are making plans for a long-term restoration effort,” said Rob Land, who coordinates emergency assistance for the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives. “We were hit very severely from Branson to the Mississippi River.”

The cooperatives are still assessing the extent of the damage and are being hindered by poor road conditions. Many roads in the affected areas are covered with ice and fallen trees.

SAFETY REMINDER – Power lines are down in roadways and sagging overhead.  We urge everyone to please use extreme caution around downed or sagging power lines. Ice on power lines makes an excellent insulator for conducting electricity and an extremely dangerous situation – do NOT assume a line is de-energized. Do not touch any downed lines.  If power lines have fallen across a vehicle you are in, STAY IN THE VEHICLE AND CALL FOR HELP!

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Editor's Note: For media inquiries, contact Jim McCarty at 573-680-2451