Few Cape AmerenUE customers still without electricity; rural cooperatives still struggling

AmerenUE almost accomplished its goal of having all of its local electric utility customers back online by the end of Thursday.

But rural electric cooperatives aren't faring so well.

As of 7:10 a.m. today, only 11 meters were still without power in the 63701 ZIP code, out of 16,805 customers, according to the company's outage tracking software on its Web site, ameren.com.

Only 16 remained without power in AmerenUE's Jackson service area.

Jackson public utilities officials said Thursday that some of their customers may not have electricity until next week, but most are up and running already.

In the area north and east of Jackson, Citizens Electric Cooperative reported 140 customers without electricity as of 8 a.m. The cooperative said that "power will be restored to all but a couple dozen homes" located in more remote areas, or those that sustained damage that must be repaired before they can be disconnected.

In Bollinger County, 3,400 members of the Black River Electric Cooperative were still without electricity early Thursday night.

Several thousand customers of the Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative were still without power Friday morning, and cooperative officials said in a news release they could be without service until next week.

SEMO Electric Cooperative reports about 1,800 members were still without power in Bloomfield, Mo., Bell City, Mo., Advance, Mo., and areas around Jackson. At the peak of the outages almost 8,000 cooperative members were without electricity.

AmerenCIPS reports only a handful of outages among its Illinois customers.

The National Weather Service predicts highs will be around 40 degrees today, causing some melting. However clouds will dominate most of the day.

Wintry precipitation is no longer in the forecast for today, but there's a strong chance of showers Saturday night and Sunday, and a 20 percent chance of snow Sunday night and Monday.