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Ike's winds take toll on region

Early morning storm leaves many without power

BY LINDA RUSH, THE SOUTHERN

Sunday, September 14, 2008 10:55 PM CDT

After leaving the Texas coast battered, Hurricane Ike still had plenty of punch left for Southern Illinois, area residents discovered in the pre-dawn hours Sunday.

And as of late Sunday night, many were still wondering when the lights would come back on.

By early Sunday afternoon, Ike's 60-mph wind gusts, which brought down trees and limbs and caused massive power outages, had died down.

"It's over," at least for Southern Illinois, said David Humphrey, lead forecaster and lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Paducah. "It will be pretty quiet for the next seven days." Highs will be in the mid-70s to low 80s, and lows will dip to the mid- to upper 50s, Humphrey said.

The winds seemed to hit the entire region with equal intensity, Humphrey said.

Though the storm headed northeast into northern Indiana by Sunday afternoon, the power outages remained for many throughout Southern Illinois.

AmerenCIPS executive Leigh Morris said in a release Sunday afternoon that 49,000-plus customers experienced outages. By 7:30 p.m., there were 23,655 outages in the state, mostly in Southern Illinois. He expected most would have power restored by midnight tonight, with the exception of Marion and the surrounding area, where power might not be fully restored until Wednesday. A county-by-county update of outages is available on the utility's Web site.

Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative in Dongola began getting reports of scattered outages at 8 a.m. Sunday. As of 9 p.m. Sunday, some 2,600 member-customers still were without power, said spokeswoman Jerri Schaefer.

SIEC serves a rural territory including Alexander, Johnson, Massac, Pulaski, Pope and Union counties. Schaefer said SIEC crews will work through the night.

Morris said Ameren Illinois Utilities sent one of its storm trailers to Marion to serve the Southern Illinois area hardest hit by the storm. The storm trailer is a mobile storeroom with the supplies line crews need to restore service.

A storm trailer carries supplies to meet the needs of up to 250 linemen.

Those linemen are likely to be the utility's own, Morris added, because many outside electrical contractors have sent their crews to the Gulf Coast to help restore power in areas hit by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. But many of the Ameren crews must travel more than 300 miles to reach Southern Illinois.

The situation was "exacerbated by the terrain," Morris said, with trees and limbs blocking access to some areas. Still, it could have been worse, he said, if there had been lightning instead of just rain and wind. First consideration, he said, is safety of the work crews.

Egyptian Electric Cooperative was hard hit as well. Bryce Cramer, office and member services manager, said as of 9:30 p.m. Sunday, 1,600 of its 14,200 members still were without power. The co-op was hardest hit in Jackson County. At the worst of the outage, 2,500 co-op members were without power, Cramer said. Jim Grothaus, operations manager, expected all systemwide outages to be corrected today; the co-op then will begin working on individual outages.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Department reported as of 1:30 p.m. Sunday that all primary roads and most secondary roads were clear of downed trees and power lines, but still urged motorists to use caution.

A dispatcher in the Union County Sheriff's Department said power was out and roads blocked "all over the county," including Water Valley Road. Franklin County, too, reported "pretty extensive outages. We've got CIPS running all over the county," a dispatcher said.

In Perry County, no roads were blocked as of Sunday evening, but there were power outages reported throughout the county. Other counties had similar reports.

Marion Mayor Bob Butler said he was sitting in church at about 8:45 a.m. Sunday when the power there went off and remained off for an hour and 15 minutes. He said he hadn't lost electrical service at his home, but cable TV was off for about 45 minutes Sunday afternoon.

A large tree was down on East Main Street (Old Illinois 13) near Fabick CAT, but crews removed it and other trees and limbs that were in the city's streets, Butler said.

He said utility crews had been "working diligently. I feel confident they'll bring in people to get power restored as quickly and expeditiously as possible."

Southern Illinois University spokesman Rod Sievers said a few trees and some limbs were downed on the campus, but crews already had cleared the damage.

The only campus buildings still without power as of Sunday afternoon were the Safety Center and the baseball clubhouse, both served by Egyptian Electric.

Sievers said he was in Chicago over the weekend and had seen convoys of utility crews, tree-cutting crews and State Farm Insurance disaster relief vehicles, all headed south on the Interstate. Interstate highways were closed in the Chicago area, he added.

Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole urged drivers to be cautious Sunday; though roads have been cleared, some intersections remained without traffic signals because of the power outages.

He said residents with fallen limbs and tree debris should move everything to the street curb for pickup by city crews. No household materials or construction materials will be picked up during the one-time cleanup effort, which will coincide with regular refuse pickup days beginning today.

Police, fire and public service departments have been responding to all calls for service, Cole said.

In Union County, the weather forced cancellation of a planned picnic in Jonesboro to conclude a re-enactment of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. And in Cobden, the Cobden Women's Club had a reception to mark its 100th anniversary. The event went on, but in the dark because of a power outage.

linda.rush@thesouthern.com / 351-5079