More homes getting power
BY TIM MITCHELL
NEWS-GAZETTE STAFF WRITER
Published Online JULY 16, 2004
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An estimated 2,000 homes and businesses in East Central Illinois remained without power Friday morning in the wake of Tuesday's storm.
Illinois Power spokeswoman Natalie Hemmer said power was restored on Thursday to nearly 1,900 IP customers in Champaign and Piatt counties.
Hemmer said about 20 homes in Champaign-Urbana still needed power at 8:30 a.m. today.
"Most of the remaining outages in Champaign are isolated situations, and some of them involve making repairs in the individual homes," Hemmer said. "We are continuing to work on it."
Hemmer said 60 homes in Mansfield affected by the storm had their power restored by 1 p.m. on Thursday.
Hemmer said 8,000 IP customers in Vermilion County, primarily in Danville, remained without power on Thursday evening, but work crews reduced that number to 2,000 homes by 8:30 a.m. today.
"We anticipate getting the majority of those homes restored to power by late tonight or early Saturday morning," Hemmer said. "Our crews will be working through the night until everybody gets their power back."
Hemmer said IP has 65 line crews and 30 forestry crews, some of which came from out of state, working to bring back power to the Danville area.
"As our crews in Champaign-Urbana completed their work, we've been sending them to Danville to assist with what is going over there," Hemmer said.
Leigh Morris, a spokesman for Ameren Corporation, reported that work crews restored power to the final 308 homes in the Ludlow area on Thursday.
"As far as we know, all of our customers now have full electric service," Morris said.
Rantoul Public Works Director Greg Hazel said power had been restored to all homes and businesses in his community.
Hazel said he would be sending one of his three street department work crews and a chipper machine to Ludlow today to assist with the cleanup work there.
"We're going to do some chipping and brush cleanup," Hazel said. "Our two other crews will remain in Rantoul to complete the final cleanup work here."
Jeannie Kingston, manager of administrative services for Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative, said all of the cooperative's customers who had been affected by Tuesday's storm now have electricity restored.
You can reach Tim Mitchell at (217) 351-5366 or via e-mail at tmitchel@news-gazette.com.
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