Power outages in Columbia could go in to Tuesday
The City of Columbia Utilities said it expects some customers to be without power until Monday or Tuesday, depending on the weather.
As of 9:30 p.m. Saturday, there were more than 9,000 customers without power.
“Because the snow is heavy and wet, it is causing many issues. The crews are currently working on the larger outages, impacting large amounts of customers, caused by trees and limbs falling into distribution lines,” the city said in a press release. “They will then work on restoring power back to individual homes that have had single drop wires impacted by winter weather.”
Columbia Water and Light said crews would be reduced overnight so they could rest and return in the morning for 16-hour shifts.
Approx. 9,000 customers are w/o power in Columbia. Work crews will be reduced overnight so they can rest & return in the morning to full crews on 16 hour shifts. Keep checking https://t.co/YdwqNhuIHt to see outages & reporting them to 573.875.2555. Thanks for your patience. pic.twitter.com/kOs0R8yF6A
— Columbia Water&Light (@CoMoWaterLight) January 13, 2019
The office is seeking help from other utilities to get power restored to the customers who were without electricity on Saturday.
Mutual aid crews arrived to assist in restoring power in the city just after 2:40 p.m. Saturday.
Mutual aid crews have arrived and we now have more manpower to help restore power citywide. Please use https://t.co/YdwqNhuIHt to see outages and report outages at 573.875.2555. Thanks for your patience!
— Columbia Water&Light (@CoMoWaterLight) January 12, 2019
The city is also seeking a declaration of emergency in accordance with city ordinance, the city of Columbia said in a news release. The aid was requested at 8:37 a.m. Saturday and interim City Manager John Glascock approved the request and forwarded it to the Missouri Public Utility Alliance a few minutes later, according to the release.
Crews from Macon, Waynesville, Palmyra and Rolla were responding to the request, as well as contractors from PAR Electrial and Asplundh, city officials said.
The city tweeted Saturday morning that Water and Light crews are working to restore power in 43 separate outages caused by heavy snow on tree limbs sagging into power lines.
We have over 6,000 customers w/o power due to heavy snow causing trees and limbs to sag into power lines. Please visit https://t.co/YdwqNhMk63 for updates & if you’re experiencing an outage that isn’t on our map, please call 573.875.2555 to let us know. Thanks for your patience. pic.twitter.com/EjIpctcdaG
— Columbia Water&Light (@CoMoWaterLight) January 12, 2019
Crews were kept busy throughout the morning in Columbia responding to reports of downed limbs and power lines throughout the city. Several of those calls were in central Columbia.
The last time the city called for mutual aid was in July 2014 after strong storms.
According to Boone Electric’s outage map about 795 customers were without power at 4:30 a.m. Sunday. Boone Electric said Saturday that all the outages are weather related and seven crews were working to restore power with more on the way.
“Five neighboring co-op crews will be assisting us from Macon Electric, Tri-County Electric, Gascosage Electric & Lewis County Electric,” Boone Electric wrote on Facebook. “Crews will work through the night to get members back on.”
Ameren Missouri’s outage map showed about 250 customers without power across the state at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, with local outages in the Boonville, Ashland, and Hartsburg areas. A utility representative said Sunday that most of the outages in mid-Missouri were restored, but the Boonville area was more challenging. The representative said crews stopped working around midnight for mandatory rest, but would be back to restore power to the remaining customers in Cooper County.
