For immediate release

Feb. 10, 2009 — 10:30 a.m.

Outages down to 7,966 for Missouri electric cooperatives

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

The three remaining electric cooperatives with outages due to the recent ice storm have restored power to all but 7,966 members as of Tuesday morning, Feb. 10. SEMO Electric Cooperative, Sikeston, reduced its numbers below 1,000.

Today, there are a total of 900 linemen working in the SEMO Electric Cooperative area. The cooperative has 94 percent of its members back online, which is slightly ahead of where its management estimated restoration efforts would be by this time. “What we are doing is basically building a new line stretching from Memphis to St. Louis, and doing that in a couple of weeks,” says Glen Cantrell, communications manager for the cooperative.

Ozark Border Electric, Poplar Bluff, has 1,250 members without power. Those numbers have gone up and down in the past 24 hours. The cooperative has replaced 2,500 poles to date and that number is likely to climb.

The largest number of outages remains in the Bootheel where Pemiscot-Dunklin has approximately 5,800 members without power. On Monday, the cooperative restored service to another 100 members, mostly by backfeeding from the four substations that are back in service.

Heavy rain and standing water are slowing efforts to restore power there, but Manager Charles Crawford says progress is still being made.

“With this rain, things will slow down a little bit,” says Crawford. “There’s a lot of water standing on the ground. But they are still working. The rain is falling, but they are up in the buckets stringing wire.”

On Monday, Crawford was looking forward to the possibility that the cooperative’s 10 remaining substations would be back in service by Friday. He says the rainy weather now might push that schedule back to Saturday.

In the wake of the massive storm that dumped heavy ice on the Bootheel, Pemiscot-Dunklin has set a number of records. The 1,000 workers who came to the cooperative’s aid is a record for help sent to an electric cooperative in Missouri. And the 7,000 broken poles already replaced is also a record for an outage repair in Missouri. That number is likely to climb considerably.

“That’s just distribution line poles,” Crawford says. “That’s not counting service poles and yard lights. I see three loads of poles sitting in front of the office now and there’s more on the way.”

Crawford says he is amazed and impressed by the long hours and hard work being put in by the crews. “I’m proud of every one of them, contractors and co-op people alike. They are performing at top-notch speed.”

He also praised the assistance of farmers on the cooperative’s lines who are volunteering their time and equipment to assist the restoration effort.“They are doing a lot to get us through this outage,” Crawford says.

-30-

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