For immediate release

Feb. 6, 2009 — 10 a.m.

Co-ops restore power to another 1,600

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

Lights came on for another 1,609 members of electric cooperatives whose homes were plunged into darkness by the winter storm. A massive influx of linemen, including many contractors released by Ameren UE, helped in the effort.

The brightest spot right now is in the south-central Ozarks where Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative reports only 126 members without power. The cooperative serves a heavily timbered landscape, and fallen trees are making it difficult to reach the final outages.

Other progress was made in the Bootheel where Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative turned on another substation serving members in the Holcomb area of Dunklin County. On Thursday another 600 of the cooperative’s members saw power restored.

SEMO and Ozark Border electric cooperatives also made progress. Both co-ops saw massive destruction in an area where their service territories meet, a circle that includes southern Stoddard County, eastern Butler County, and northern New Madrid County. Crews are focusing on this area, which includes the southeast portion of Dexter, Essex, Risco, Malden, and Campbell.

Here is a status report from the affected systems:

Howell-Oregon, West Plains
Most of the cooperative’s members have power. Only about 125 remain out. These are scattered across the service area with the highest concentration located along the Arkansas border. There are 175 linemen working the outage. They are focusing on individual accounts, which is the slowest part of the restoration process. About 300 poles remain to be replaced.

SEMO Electric, Sikeston
The cooperative has 3,700 members without power. One substation is still out. The substation serves members in the southern part of Stoddard County including communities southeast of Dexter, Essex and Risco. Very few poles were left standing in this area. Additional crews are being added daily and are focusing their efforts on this area. The cooperative is also working scattered outages throughout the system and was mopping up in the East Prairie area on Thursday They are bringing 400-500 members on line each day and expect to be 90 to 95 percent complete in nine days or less. There are 102 crews in the field now with a total of 525 workers; 34 more are arriving today.

Ozark Border Electric, Poplar Bluff
The cooperative has 2,756 members without power, down from 3,400 yesterday. There are two substations down, and they are located in the Campbell and Malden areas. In addition, there are scattered outages throughout the cooperative’s service area. There are 300 linemen working on the system and more are being added daily. The cooperative has 1,400 poles down. They are rebuilding a mile of line per crew per day and expect to have 95 percent of the members back on in seven days or less.

Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric, Hayti
Damage was most severe in Pemiscot-Dunklin’s service area, with 90 percent of the system destroyed and all substations off at one point. Power has been restored to two substations and a third is being backfed from another substation. On Thursday, crews reenergized the Gibson substation located in northern Dunklin County, allowing power to flow to 600 more members primarily located south of Holcomb. Earlier in the week, power was restored to an area located east of Portageville that includes the community of Hayward. Approximately 6,900 members remain without power. More than 700 linemen from electric cooperatives in Missouri, Mississippi, Iowa and Louisiana, along with 377 contractors released by AmerenUE, are working the outage. This is by far the most help ever sent to an electric cooperative in Missouri. Crews report building a mile of line per crew per day. There is no timetable for power restoration here at this time.

M&A Electric Power Cooperative, Poplar Bluff
M&A is a transmissin cooperative and is the power supplier to Ozark Border, SEMO and Pemiscot-Dunklin electric cooperatives. M&A added 100 additional linemen in the last three days and now has 300 from electric cooperatives and contractors working on transmission lines. Every line section – the lines that connect substations together – required to energize distribution substations currently have crews and materials assigned to them except for one that is waiting on engineering design work. They are taking the shortest route possible and are making progress. M&A had a total of 2,400 poles down and at the height of the storm, 39 of its 75 substations were off. Storm damage here is estimated at $80 million.

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