8:15 a.m.
About 8,500 Southwestern Electric members are without power this morning after a severe storm swept through Illinois, snapping trees, breaking poles and bringing down power lines. Crews are on site at locations across Southwestern’s service area, surveying damage and making repairs, and the cooperative’s operations and engineering teams are working with Ameren to identify transmission line faults affecting Southwestern substations.
As of 8:15 a.m., 3,600 Madison County members were without power, 3,120 Fayette County members were without service, and 940 members in Effingham County were without power. The remaining outages were scattered across each of the counties served by Southwestern.
Members are cautioned to avoid all downed and low-hanging power lines. The lines may be energized, or become energized without warning.