For immediate release

Feb. 4, 2009 — 11:30 a.m.

New contractor crews join co-op restoration effort

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

The number of rural electric cooperative members without electricity continues to decrease in southeast Missouri, and a new development will bring even more manpower to at least one system crippled by last week’s ice storm.

Today, Charles Crawford, manager of Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative, Hayti, announced that distribution contractors being released by Ameren will stay in the Bootheel to help restore service there. These men and their equipment are already in the area and will begin work on the cooperative’s lines immediately. As more men and equipment are released, they will also be added to the cooperative’s work force.

As of 10:30 a.m., about 15,000 co-op members remain without power, down from more than 64,000 members at the height of the disaster.

The contractor crews will join linemen from Iowa and Louisiana who arrived at Pemiscot-Dunklin in waves all day and well into the night on Tuesday. A virtual army of linemen is in the Bootheel helping the cooperative.

Linemen working in the storm damage for Pemiscot-Dunklin let supper wait and stood in line in the bitter cold to cheer the moment when the lights went on for members in the Hayward community Tuesday evening. About 200 members now have power restored as an army of linemen poured over every corner of the system in an all-out effort to restore electricity.

“We are making progress on the north end of the system from a substation just west of Portageville down to the Five O subdivision,” Crawford said. “West of there, we have a large portion of the Scrub Ridge community back on and south to the University of Missouri’s Lee Farm. From there we are feeding west to a portion of Hayward. We will continue to work there to reach those who are not on.”

While hundreds of poles have been set and miles of line replaced, power still is not flowing due to severe damage to the transmission grid. M&A Electric Power Cooperative, Poplar Bluff, which supplies power to Pemiscot-Dunklin and four other electric cooperatives in southeast Missouri, had 145 miles of high-voltage transmission line on the ground and more than 2,300 poles broken under the estimated weight of 10,000 pounds of ice per span.

“Our system had endured the most damage from a single event that has ever been experienced in our history,” said John Farris, general manager for M&A. “We’re anxious to see this nightmare end, but we realize that the customers sitting in the dark are even more anxious. That knowledge will keep us on the job until the last line is turned on.”

Two of Pemiscot-Dunklin’s 14 substations are now energized. No timetable for power restoration has been set.

Crawford advises members to have their mastheads repaired as soon as possible if they are damaged. “That part is the members’ responsibility,” he said. “If they don’t get this done, we won’t be able to energize their homes.”

At SEMO Electric Cooperative, Sikeston, another 300 members regained power overnight. Today, 14 additional line crews will join the fray.

The number of outages at At Ozark Border Electric Cooperative, Poplar Bluff, also declined from Tuesday. Power is still out in the Malden area where the Campbell substation is down and roughly 3,000 are without power.

“There’s power to the substation now, but every feeder line that goes out from the substation was damaged,” said Manager Stanley Estes. “We’re making progress there and we’re working to back feed electricity into the area.”

Estes said progress is being made in Butler, Ripley and Stoddard counties. More than 240 men are already working in the co-op’s territory, and another 80 are expected before the end of the week. Estes said crews from Missouri and Illinois are on the ground and will be joined by men from Ohio and Florida.

The brightest spot for Missouri’s rural electric co-ops continues to be Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative, West Plains, where outages dropped below 400 members. They anticipate wrapping up restoration efforts sometime this weekend.

Outage totals as of 10:30 a.m., Feb. 4 are as follows:

Howell-Oregon, West Plains: 394
Ozark Border, Poplar Bluff: 3,200
Pemiscot-Dunklin: 6,300
SEMO, Sikeston: 5,200
White River Valley, Branson: RESTORED

TOTAL: 15,094

For a look at how your co-op typically goes about the task of restoring electric service, visit http://www.amec.org/poweron.html

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