After leaving the Texas coast battered, Hurricane Ike still had plenty of punch left for Southern Illinois, area residents discovered around dawn today.

By early afternoon, the 60 mph wind gusts that brought down trees and limbs and caused massive power outages throughout Southern Illinois had died down.

But AmerenCIPS said some customers could be without power until Wednesday.

"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."

The storm seemed to hit most of Southern Illinois with equal intensity, Humphrey said.

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

At 2:30 p.m. today, AmerenCIPS said about 49,000 customers were without power.

Leigh Morris of AmerenCIPS said in a news release that the utility expected to have power restored to most customers by midnight tonight, with the exception of some customers in Marion and the surrounding area, where power might not be fully restored until Wednesday.

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 carries supplies to meet the needs of as many as 250 linemen.

Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative at Dongola began receiving reports of outages about 8 a.m. Those outages were caused by Ike's winds, which uprooted and split trees, broke limbs and downed power lines, a spokeswoman said.

About 3,500 members were without power this afternoon, spokeswoman Jerri Schaefer reported about 4:20 p.m. today.

The cooperative's Jonesboro substation was out of power because of strong wind gusts that damaged Southern Illinois Power Cooperative transmission lines to the substation.

In addition, a few broken electric poles, broken cross-arms, downed power lines and many other scattered outages still remain throughout SIEC's rural service territory, which includes Alexander, Johnson, Massac, Pulaski, Pope and Union counties.

Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole urged drivers to be cautious. Some roads still need to be cleared, and 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 that will coincide with regular refuse pickup days.

No injuries or significant structural damage to buildings had been reported, Cole added.

Downed trees and limbs on the SIUC campus were cleared today, and the only buildings remaining without power were the Safety Center and the baseball clubhouse, both served by Egyptian Electric Cooperative, university spokesman Rod Sievers said.