Ameren officials expected their midnight target for restoration to majority of consumers to pass with several thousand residents still in the dark.

As of Tuesday evening, Ameren Illinois Utilities said 25,000 customers in Jackson and Williamson counties were still without power. Ameren said it hopes to have power restored to most of those customers by early today, but stressed some outages could continue into Thursday and Friday.

Ameren said it had restored power to nearly 44,000 customers and had a work force in the field of more than 2,100 service and support personnel, as well as 1,200 pieces of equipment ranging from line trucks to backhoes.

At the peak of outages caused by Friday's storm, more than 68,000 were without electricity.

"We're making very good progress," Ron Pate, vice president of operations for Ameren Illinois, said at a Tuesday morning press briefing. "We're getting there. Be patient with us."

Electricity had been restored to all of the region's hospitals and only a small number of nursing homes remained without power.

With weather forecasts calling for rain, thunderstorms and high winds, crews were trying to make the most of a sunny Tuesday. Pate said.

"We're trying to get as much done in this weather we've been blessed with as we can," he said, adding company officials had been developing contingency plans for both storm-ravaged Southern Illinois and northern parts of the state that could be hit harder by this upcoming round of storms. "Our crews will work in some pretty bad weather."

Ameren has established customer service centers at Illinois Centre mall in Marion, Carbondale Civic Center, Herrin City Hall, the Carterville food pantry and Murphysboro City Hall.

Southeastern Illinois Electric Cooperative, based in Eldorado, had 1,900 customers left without power Tuesday afternoon, said company representative Stefanie Tripp. At the peak of the storm, the company had 12,000 customers lacking electricity service.

As of Tuesday morning, Steeleville-based Egyptian Electric Cooperative had 4,000 customers without power. Eight thousand were without electricity at the peak of the outages, and company officials expected progress to be made Tuesday.

adam.testa@thesouthern.com

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