A semi trailer in the Carlinville City Hall parking lot became the depository for donated supplies at noon Monday for Washington, Ill., where a vicious tornado killed a man and damaged or destroyed between 250 and 500 buildings there early Monday. More than 100 people were injured in the town and during the statewide outbreak of tornadoes at least six people were killed, sources said. Carlinville City Hall is accepting donations between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily until the semi trailer is full.
Madison County seemed to escape the brunt of a storm system that roared through the state starting Sunday, mostly blowing over trees, stoplights and yard items.
Rural Bunker Hill resident Sherry Throne posted on The Telegraph’s Facebook page that a large tree topple over onto power lines and snapped two power poles, one on the side of the street where Throne lives and the other power pole snapped across the road.
“The neighbors and us were blocked from getting in and out until around 4 p.m. when someone came to clear the tree out of the road. Power trucks arrived with new poles around 10:15 (p.m) and power was finally restored at 2:45 a.m.,” she described in a Monday post.
Other commenters on the page also described scenes that were farther north.
Channahon, Ill., resident Sue Kinsella posted as she rode home from Godfrey with other passengers that they experienced strong winds as they traveled farther north during the last two days’ storms.
She described exits as closed near Coal City and Diamond, Ill.
“Tough to see as we pass tangled power lines down,” she posted. “People in our village farther north are finding items from Washington, Ill., a town southwest of our town.”
A Godfrey Street Department official said that the department received zero calls about the severe weather and that no street department employees were needed to clean up any debris from this weekend’s weather.
Ameren Illinois restored power to more than 120,000 Ameren Illinois customers but approximately 28,000 customers remained without service after 20 hours into restoration at 8 a.m. Monday. More than 1,000 Ameren co-workers and 350 additional contractor resources were working Monday morning to repair damages.
The largest area left without power after the storm system was the greater Peoria-area of Washington, Morton, Metamora, Pekin, East Peoria, Groveland, Roanoke, Washington and Eureka. Areas including Bloomington, Lincoln , Danville, and Brookport also were hard-hit. But scattered outages were caused by downed poles and other storm-related damage throughout the territory.
The storm began working its way through the Ameren Illinois territory at about 10:30 a.m. Sunday, causing more than 148,388 customer outages at the peak. Ameren Illinois activated the Emergency Operations Center at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those impacted by this storm. Our crews have made tremendous progress in restoring power to our customers as quickly and safely as possible,” Richard Mark, president and CEO, Ameren Illinois said Monday. “We have dispatched field personnel to assess damage and restore service, and will have a better idea on when the remaining outages will be restored once the full extent of the damage to the distribution system is known.”
A mobile customer service center will be set up at Five Points in Washington. Three customer service representatives will be available for Washington customers to report outages in person. They encouraged all customers without power or natural gas service to contact its customer service number at (800) 755-5000
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