For immediate release

Feb. 13, 2009 — 10:30 a.m.

Outage numbers continue to drop for electric cooperatives

The three Missouri electric cooperatives fighting to repair damage in the wake of a January ice storm have restored power to all but 6,497 members. The powerful storm that swept through the area on Wednesday, Feb. 11, set the effort back at least two days as crews had to reset many fallen and leaning poles and clear more fallen limbs from lines.

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

But a bright sunny day on Thursday let them catch up. SEMO Electric Cooperative, Sikeston, which had 11,000 members out at the height of the outage, is now down to just 397. Ozark Border, Poplar Bluff, reports approximately 600 without service.

The most damage remains at Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative, Hayti, where approximately 5,500 members were without power Friday morning. The 1,000 linemen working on the problem there are in the final stages of the effort, with crews hanging transformers and individual service drops in most parts of the system in anticipation of getting power back to the substations.

Manager Charles Crawford says the repair work is complete around the Steele substation in the southeast part of the system. Repairs in the Gideon area and near the cooperative’s office located between Hayti and Kennett are also in the final stages.

“It’s moving on,” Crawford says of the restoration effort. “The water is down but the mud is still a problem. It slows down getting the poles in the ground. But the people in here working, they are just busting to get it done. You stop and think, we are going to have this entire system that took 75 years to build rebuilt in three weeks. That’s a pretty good record.”

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