UPDATE: Ameren says power outages will continue for many though Saturday evening (2024)

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The latest after storms walloped East Central Illinois on Thursday:

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Ameren Illinois is warning many customers who lost power during the storm Thursday can expect to remain without power through Saturday evening, due to the magnitude of the damage and number of outages.

“Some customers could have their power restored sooner, and other outages could last longer,” the utility said Friday afternoon.

As of 8 a.m. Friday, Ameren crews had restored power for more than 70,000 customers, or 45 percent of the overall damage.

The storm caused more than 180,000 Ameren Illinois customers to lose power through the midsection of the utility’s service area.

As of Friday morning, there were 650 poles damaged or destroyed.

Ameren said it expects to start providing estimated safe restoration times to individual customers later Friday afternoon and into the evening.

More than 2,000 Ameren workers are working on the outages.

“Ameren Illinois deployed all available internal resources. Plus, more than 1000 outside contractor personnel from 20 different utility resources are engaged or headed to assist,” the utility said.

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The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District at 201 W. Kenyon Road says it’s serving as a cooling center for those in the area still without electricity.

The public health building is a kid-friendly cooling center open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, with free breakfast and lunch for kids and teens 18 and younger. It also has educational TV, free Wi-Fi and books for kids, teens and adults.

The public health district lists the following other facilities that can serve as cooling centers:

— Department of Human Services, 705 N. Country Fair Drive, C.

— Social Security Administration, 101 S. Country Fair Drive, C.

— Champaign Public Library, 200 W. Green St., C .

— Urbana Free Library, 210 W. Green St., U

— Market Place mall, 2000 N. Neil St., C.

— Lincoln Square, Urbana.

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Tuscola’s Ervin Park and pool were closed Friday due to extensive damage and power lines down.

City Administrator Drew Hoel said a fallen tree punched a hole in the roof of the pool building.

Tuscola’s City Hall was open Friday, but a substantial area of the community was still without power, he said.

There were no projections yet on how soon the park and pool would open, he said.

Tree limbs throughout Tuscola were being picked up at the edge of streets as time allowed, with highest priority pick-ups being tree debris blocking roads or on buildings.

Danville’s city parks are all closed Friday, due to large amounts of debris and fallen trees, and will remain closed until further notice.

City public works’ employees were focusing on making roads safe for travel, and were unable to get to an assessment of storm debris hazards in parks at this time, city officials announced.

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ST. JOSEPH — Assistant Public Works Director Luke Fisher has never seen anything like it.

“It’s probably the biggest event, the biggest natural disaster we have had,” he said Friday morning.

With dozens of trees, some hundreds of years old, down St. Joseph Public Works worked all night to clear roads after a storm with 80 mph winds rolled through the area Thursday afternoon.

Fisher said the main issue public works is battling on Friday is the fact that some of the town is still without power, including three of the four lift stations for the sanitary service. Public works is taking a generator to each lift station and pumping them. The sewer plant is also running on its own generator. They are also trying to get the bigger trees and limbs cut into smaller pieces.

Fisher said the village had been in contact with Ameren and they are sending crews from Ohio that are expected to be in the area later today.

Parks also suffered damage with tree limbs down at Kolb Park and a light pole snapped off at the ground at the Sports Complex on Diamond 3.

Fisher said that the diamond will be unusable for a while and before the other diamonds can be used the lights need to be tested.

Fisher is asking residents to be patient.

Village Hall currently has no phone or internet so they cannot take calls from residents.

He also asked that residents pile branches by the side of the road. Branches should be no longer than six feet long and four inches in diameter. He said to look for updates on the village website or on the Public Works Facebook page.

— Nora Maberry

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Christie Clinic has posted its clinic in Tuscola on Main was still without power Friday and appointments there were being rescheduled.

Carle Health’s facilities in the area were all open Friday.

The Urbana School-Based Health Center will be closed Friday through Wednesday due to a power outage at Urbana High School. Medical and dental appointments scheduled for the school health center were being moved to Frances Nelson Health Center, 819 Bloomington Road, C.

OSF Medical Group offices at 707 N. Logan and 800 N. Logan in Danville were closed Friday due to power outages.

ImpactLife says it lost about 70 blood donations from Thursday’s expected collections due to storm-related power outages, blood drive cancellations, missed appointments and closures of donor centers locations.

Power was back on Friday at all locations, and the blood service is hoping to make up losses Friday and over the weekend to get supply to needed levels for the July 4 holiday.

— Debra Pressey

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Champaign and Urbana public works crews continued dealing with trees down in roadways and non-functioning traffic lights Friday morning.

The cities are moving trees and limbs that fell on roadways, but public works officials say property owners will need to call tree services about trees down on private property.

“We are continuing to be inundated with calls from all over the city,” Champaign Public Works spokesman Kris Koester said Friday.

Public works crews worked late Thursday night, and were expected to continue working through the weekend, he said.

Champaign public works is requesting that residents call only about urgent situations, such as blocked roads or traffic signals out. For non-urgent matters, send an email to publicworks@champaignil.gov.

Urbana had four public works crews out Friday, three of them working in priority areas in central and southern parts of the city where there was a lot of damage to mature trees, public works Director Tim Cowan said.

There were still a fair number of power outages and traffic lights out in Urbana, and at some intersections crews have placed four-way stops until the traffic lights are working again.

Cowan said there were still some roads blocked, but that situation was likely to be relieved by lunchtime.

Urbana will offer a special curbside pickup of downed tree limbs and brisj next week. Debris must be placed at the curbside by 7 a.m. July 5 to be picked up.

Tree limbs must be 8 feet or shorter in length and 10 inches or less in diameter, plus brush and branches.

The Village of Mahomet has scheduled a special brush and tree limb collection for the week of July 10.

Materials to be collected should be at the curbside in residents’ designated zones no later than 7 a.m. on their collection days.

Complete trees or materials thicker than six inches or longer than five feet can’t be accepted.

— Debra Pressey

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The Champaign County Forest Preserve offices and Lake of the Woods Golf Course were closed Friday due to a power outage and storm damage.

The forest preserve staff posted on Facebook that all golf facilities, including the pro shop, will remain closed until further notice. Clean-up was underway.

Homer Lake Forest Preserve was expected to be closed through noon Friday due to storm damage.

Eco-Adventures at Lake of the Woods Friday morning was canceled due to the power outage at Elks Lake Pavilion.

As of Friday morning, the grand finale of Freedom Fest at Lake of the Woods was still on, with the gates opening at 4 p.m.

“We are keeping our eyes and ears on the weather forecast throughout the day, and will update the public if any changes are made to the schedule," the district posted.

— Debra Pressey

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Willard Airport, which closed Thursday afternoon due to storm damage and a power outage, expected to resume normal operations Friday morning.

Airport Executive Director Tim Bannon said power was restored to the terminal late Thursday night and both airline and airport systems were back online.

“We are resuming normal operations, and plan for the mid-day flights to operate normally,” he said.

Temporary repairs have been completed to the terminal roof, which was damaged by the storm, but access to certain areas of the terminal was being restricted due to equipment in those areas.

“However, all critical areas are open,” he said.

— Debra Pressey