For immediate release

Feb. 9, 2009 — 10:30 a.m.

Only three co-ops left with outages as
Howell-Oregon completes work

Only three electric cooperatives still had outages today as Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative, West Plains, reported service fully restored. Outages for Missouri’s electric cooperatives dropped to 8,830 following an all-out assault on the damage over the weekend.

There are 2,250 linemen working the outage as of Monday morning, with more on the way.

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

Ozark Border Electric Cooperative, Poplar Bluff, reported 1,300 without power. The cooperative has reenergized the Malden substation, one of two without service over the weekend. However, some technical difficulty made the power come and go for some members in the area. The cooperative has 450 crews on the ground, with most focused in the Malden and Campbell areas.
They have reset 2,500 poles since the outage began.

SEMO Electric Cooperative, with 850 crews working the outage, has cut its outages to 1,630. Their focus has been the area south of Dexter where very few poles were left standing in the wake of the storm. SEMO Electric estimates 90 percent of its members will have electricity by the close of business Wednesday, Feb. 11. By Feb.18, SEMO Electric Cooperative expects to have all of its members’ electricity restored.

The worst damage remains in the Bootheel where Pemiscot-Dunklin still has about 5,900 without power.

Crews working the ice storm outage at Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative will have reset 7,000 poles by the end of today, Manager Charles Crawford says. “We have exceeded 6,000 broken poles replaced and will hit 7,000 easily today,” he says. “We are finding more every day. On one single-phase line, we found 120 broken in a row. It’s mindboggling.”

There are now 950 linemen working the outage for Pemiscot-Dunklin, the largest influx of help ever sent to an electric cooperative. “We are looking for 50 more,” Crawford says. “I want 1,000 men on the ground.”

Approximately 2,000 of the cooperative’s members now have power. “We got quite a few back up from our substation 8 which is south from Portageville to just north of Hayti,” Crawford says. “That’s where we turned most of them on last night. We’ve brought a lot of members back up.”

He said crews are working around every substation and staying in the area until connections are complete to all homes and businesses that are able to receive power.

On Sunday Crawford surveyed the destruction from the air. “The damage is incredible,” he says. “But you can sure see a lot of action taking place. At night you can really see a lot. There are truck lights flashing all over.”

High winds are expected today and tonight, which could lead to more power outages and will likely slow progress. However, crews will continue working as long as it is safely possible for them to do so.

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