Boone, Howard co-ops restore power across service area
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
UPDATE at 10:56 p.m.: Boone County Electric Co-op crews restored power for all customers.
UPDATE at 9:47 p.m.: The power is back on for nearly all customers affected by power outages in Boone and Howard counties.
The Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives outage map shows only seven Boone County Electric Cooperative customers are being affected by four outages. That's down from over 1,100 reported Friday afternoon.
The electric co-op tweeted just before 9 p.m. that all of the outages had been restored.
All Howard County Electric Cooperative customers had their lights come back after more than 1,500 were without power.
ORIGINAL: More than 1,100 Boone Electric Cooperative members and hundreds of Howard Electric Cooperatives members were without power Friday morning as snow continued to fall.
More than 5 inches of snow, and in some places more than 6 inches, had fallen around Columbia by mid-morning, with similar totals in other parts of Mid-Missouri. The heavy, wet snow was weighing down tree branches and power lines. After daylight, snow on the lines began to fall off as temperatures rose.
Boone Electric said on Twitter that one of the outages was because of a breaker that serves the Dripping Springs Road/Route VV area. That outage affected about 500 co-op members. Boone outages were reported in Boone and Randolph counties.
Boone's outage map also shows several outages around Columbia and others in the Hallsville, Sturgeon, Harrisburg, Ashland, Hartsburg and Rocheport areas.
Boone Electric spokeswoman Meredith Hoenes said as snow falls off power lines, the lines bounce and hit each other, causing breakers to open and shutting off power. Small power blips often precede these outages, she said.
Hoenes said cooperative members should only call the utility if their power is out -- not if the power is only blinking. Ten crews from other utilities were being called in early Friday afternoon to help restore power to Boone members, she said.
Ameren Missouri reported several small outages around Mid-Missouri on Friday morning.
Howard County Electric Cooperative reported close to 1,000 members without power, including about 500 in Randolph County. Co-Mo Electric Cooperative also reported members without power in Moniteau, Morgan and Cole counties. About 60 Three Rivers Electric Co-op members in Cole County were also without electricity.
Callaway Electric Cooperative reported about 500 members without power in Callaway and Montgomery counties.
Electric cooperative outages are tracked on the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives map.
Columbia Water and Light reported no outages at about 10 a.m.
Check back for updates to this developing story.
