A host of welcome visitors came to Kewanee today to help get people out of the dark.
Utility crews from as far away as Missouri came to town to help in a widespread effort to restore power to the many Kewaneeans who have been without electricity since an MF-1 tornado swept through town Monday night.
The goal was to get all, or almost all, of those without power back on by 10 p.m. Wednesday.
It will be a huge job; as of midmorning, Ameren Illinois reported that nearly 2,600 customers in Kewanee were still without power.
Progress has been made; the outage affected nearly 3,800 customers as of Tuesday morning.
Ameren officials have said the company planned to call in utility crews from southern Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin and Indiana — areas that weren’t hit by the tornados that swept through northern Illinois Monday.
This morning, power company vehicles were lined up along the east end of Rose Street and across the tracks along Red Adams Road to the Ameren facility there.
“Fortunately, driving rain showers have subsided, aiding our crews in restoring the remaining outages for virtually all of our customers today,” said Patrick Smith, senior vice president of operations for Ameren Illinois.
“We know outages are an inconvenience and no one wants to be without power,” Smith said. “Our team will work as safely and quickly as possible until the final outage has been restored. Thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding.”
Since the storm Monday, Ameren crews have restored power to some 92,000 reported outages. Nearly 1,400 workers are involved in the restoration effort.
