News Room

About 325 members in Effingham and Fayette counties lost power shortly after 5 p.m. when lightning damaged a breaker and fuses at Southwestern’s Edgewood Substation. Members south of I-70, west of I-57, and east of St. Peter were affected by the outage. Crews are on site, making repairs.

About 560 members in Effingham and Fayette counties lost power shortly before 7:30 a.m., when a vehicle struck a utility pole, breaking the pole and downing power lines.

At 4:00 p.m. a vehicle struck a Southwestern Electric Cooperative power pole interrupting power to 135 Madison county members.

Southwestern Electric crews have restored power to more than 1,500 members today as high winds moved across the co-op’s service area, dropping trees into power lines, breaking poles and damaging fuses. Linemen will be on call throughout the evening, responding to outages as winds continue to buffet the Midwest.

About 110 members in Maryville are presently without power. Southwestern crews have identified the source of the outage and are repairing lines at Highway 159. Engineering and operations teams expect to restore service around 4 p.m.

Southwestern Electric crews have restored power to 950 Edwardsville area members who lost service late this morning after high winds dropped a tree through power lines, damaging poles and breakers. As of 2 p.m., about 50 co-op members were without service.

The National Weather Service has issued a high wind warning for Southwestern Illinois. The advisory, which forecasts gusts reaching 60 miles per hour, will be in effect until 7 p.m. Members who see downed or sagging power lines should stay clear of the area and contact Southwestern Electric Cooperative at (800) 637-8667

Southwestern crews are responding to outages in several counties this hour as high winds pummel Missouri and Illinois, bringing down trees and moving limbs into power lines. As of 12:15 p.m., about 1,130 members were without power.