Missouri Electric Cooperatives prepares for second round of storms Friday
MACON, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Missouri Electric Cooperative is preparing for a second round of storms beginning Friday that are expected to bring powerful winds and snow.
According to CEO of the Missouri Electric Cooperatives, Caleb Jones, storms that hit previously in the week on Tuesday left more than 20,000 people across four cooperatives without power in Northeast Missouri.
As of 8:16 Thursday night, all customers in Macon had their power restored, after more than 2,600 lost power on Tuesday according to the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives.
Thousands of Macon Electric customers in surrounding counties lost power on Tuesday -- which included Randolph, Monroe, Shelby and Chariton counties -- but the power has since been restored over the past two days.
Jones said the main cause of the outages in Macon County stemmed from snow building up on power lines.
"And then as winds started to pick-up, it blew the snow off the lines causing them to actually bounce and short out," Jones said.
Boone Electric, Callaway Electric and Howard Electric each sent crews to Macon County to help restore power and more than 40 linemen were at work to do so, according to a social media post from Macon Electric.
"They had several poles down, which can cause a problem and a long time to repair because you have poles that need to go in the ground...the grounds hard because it's frozen," said Manager of Member Services at Boone Electric, Laura Baker.
With winds expected to reach up to 40-45 mph Friday into Friday night, according to the ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather team, Jones said preparations are underway for the possibility of another round of outages.
"I can tell you that every co-op in the state right now is preparing for this storm, whether they're actually going to be hit by it or not," Jones said. "They're fueling up trucks, loading up equipment, all getting ready to help whoever in the electric family that actually gets outages."
Baker noted that most power outages within the Columbia area were caused by drivers hitting poles while driving in slick conditions on roads. Boone Electric is preparing by clearing roadways of trees, and should be prepared for the weather.
In order to prepare for the possibility of losing power, extra water--blankets--and clothing should be kept within all households, according to Jones.
