Storms knock out power to thousands in Mid-Missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Thousands of people were without power on Tuesday in Mid-Missouri as storms entered the area.

There were 432 Boone Electric Cooperative customers without power on 26 reported outages at the outages' peak, according to Boone Electric’s outage map. A majority of the outages appeared to be near the Midway area. The number dropped to 135 at 10:15 p.m.

Montgomery County had a total of 1,756 customers without power at its peak and Audrain County had a total of 965 between Consolidated Electric and Ameren customers without power earlier on Tuesday.

In Montgomery County, there were 1,396 Ameren customers without power and another 360 were from Consolidated Electric and Callaway Electric during the peak of the outage. Those numbers fell to 911 Ameren customers without power and 236 on the AMEC map.

In Audrain County, 743 Ameren customers did not have power and 222 Consolidate Electric customers had no power during the outage's peak. The numbers dropped to 163 and 154, respectively, by 10:15 p.m. Fallen power lines and trees were observed in Martinsburg.

Ameren wrote in an email at 7:20 p.m. that crews were starting to head out to fix the issue, but has no estimated time for power to return.

"Our crews are starting to safely work on these weather-related outages as the weather clears, but we do not presently have a restoration time. Please continue to monitor our outage map for updates," the email reads.

During its peak, Howard County had 223 customers without power between Howard Electric (216) and Boone Electric. Consolidated Electric Co-op’s outages in Monroe County were at265 customers at 6:11 p.m., The number dropped to 99 for Howard County and 59 for Monroe County by 10:15 p.m.

Additionally, there were seven outages reported in Columbia that affected 314 Columbia Water and Light customers. One outage was near West Ash Street and Clinkscales Road that affected 18 people. Another was reported on Concord Street, just west of South Fairview Road, the Columbia outage map showed.

The number also started to fall in the evening, with it being 198 customers on four outages at 9:45 p.m. Crews were assigned to three of the four outages at 9:45 p.m.

City of Columbia Utilities spokesman Matt Nestor wrote in an email at 6:40 p.m. that there is no estimated time for power to be restored in Columbia.

Boone County Joint Communications issued a number of alerts on Tuesday; including that a tree was down at the 6800 block of East Richland Road and that a number of traffic lights were not working along South Providence Road at intersections with Mick Deaver Drive, Champions Drive and East Stewart Road.

Traffic lights were seen without power along Providence Road in Columbia, including the normally busy intersection with Business Loop 70.

Five calls were made to fire and rescue from 5:35-5:41 p.m., according to the Columbia Fire Department’s online dispatch logs. Four of those calls were for “electrical hazard,” and included areas near the 800 block of Fay Street, 1000 block of Elleta Boulevard, the intersection near Bryant and Allen street and Rock Quarry Road near Stags Way.

Another nearly 600 people were without power in Callaway County during that outage's peak. Of the 588 outages reported on AMEC's map, 573 were Callaway Electric customers and the rest were Consolidated Electric. The overall outage number dropped to 147 by 10:15 p.m.

Callaway Electric wrote on its Facebook page that crews are currently working to restore power, but did not give an estimated time for power to come back.

"We are thankful for the much needed rain. With it the strong winds and lightning have caused several power outages across the CEC system. Please know that crews are out working and will get all power restored as safely and quickly as possible," Callaway Electric wrote.

The Fulton Police Department reported numerous trees down on its Facebook page, as well as power lines.

"Utility lines down in the 800 block of Center Street and at Tennyson and Southwinds. Please be safe if you have to travel during these storms," the department wrote.

" Tree down at Jeff City Road and Cote Sans Dessein Tree down 800 block of Court Street Possible Utility line down on Bluff near Hornet. Please be careful traveling in these areas," Fulton police wrote in another post.

Fulton police wrote that city crews were working on "issues as they arise."

ABC 17 News reached out to Boone Electric, the City of Fulton and the Columbia Fire Department.

This story is developing.