8-6: Storms ravage Jersey County

JERSEYVILLE – Linemen from MJM Electric Cooperative in Carlinville responded immediately after strong thunderstorms tore through the evening of August 5, leaving half of the cooperative’s 8,000 members without power.

Around 3,268 members are without electricity due to substations that are without power. The cooperative’s Jerseyville, Nutwood and Newbern substations lost power at 6:30 p.m. when a series of transmission lines operated by Ameren CIPS were damaged from the strom. The transmission lines feed power to the substations and from there to MJM’s distribution lines to individual homes.

Ameren Illinois reported Wednesday morning that crews are working 16-hour shifts to restore electrical service to thousands of customers in the wake of the storm.

Ameren spokesperson Leigh Morris said that 600 linemen, 200 tree trimmers and 200 support personnel have been assigned to the storm restoration effort.

Morris said outages peaked to about 33,000 after Tuesday night’s storm and as of 9 a.m. Wednesday that number had been reduced to about 9,000.

Morris said he anticipates by mid-afternoon or early evening power will be restored but there could be isolated outages.

The three MJM substations serve 2,479 homes.