Thousands of electric customers in the Lake of the Ozarks area lost power early Monday morning as a severe thunderstorm passed through Mid-Missouri.
Nearly 1,300 customers of Ameren Missouri around the lake lost electricity during the storm, which blew through the region during the 3 a.m. hour. The company reported around 700 remained without power at 8 a.m. By 7 p.m., the number without service was six.
The Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives also reported numerous early Monday morning outages among its member cooperatives: 1,456 customers in Camden County; 1,366 in Morgan County; and 154 in Miller County. By 8 a.m., Camden County reported 478 cooperative outages, Morgan with 191 and Miller had 187.
Other outage reports from rural electric cooperatives initially included 288 customers losing power in Maries County, 275 in Osage, 190 in Callaway, and 132 in Moniteau. By 8 a.m., Maries County reported 33 cooperative outages, 233 in Callaway, 81 in Osage, 47 in Moniteau, and 54 in Cole County. By 7 p.m., Maries had eight without power, and Moniteau had one. The remaining counties had restored power to all customers. In addition, about 40 Ameren customers lost power during the storm in the Russellville area, according to the utility’s outage website, which provides real time updates. The site showed service had been restored to nearly all of those customers by 8 a.m.
Old Stage Road in Cole County was closed after the storm so that Ameren crews could respond to a downed power line there, authorities indicated. Other reports noted utility lines or trees in the roadway in various locations throughout Mid-Missouri, including several streets in Jefferson City.
Division Chief Jason Turner from the Jefferson City Fire Department said his crews had seen about four lines downed by the storm.
Eric Landwehr, director of Cole County public works, shared a similar story. He said his crews had been out all day cleaning up downed trees and tree limbs across the county.
Some of the worst damage from the storm occurred at Riverside Park. Parks Director Todd Spalding said there were multiple downed trees and lots of limbs around the park. On top of the downed trees, some shingles were knocked off of one roof, while another roof and a walkway were more significantly damaged.
The other parks had some fallen tree branches, Spalding said, but it was minimal compared to Riverside. Spalding said this was the first instance of damage after a storm since the tornado in 2019. While the damage after this storm was only a fraction of what the tornado caused, Spalding said, it still required his department to be out in full force Monday.
“Our maintenance staff did a fabulous job. They got out there first thing in the morning, kind of all hands on deck thing, and got it cleaned up real nice” Spalding said.
EARLIER COVERAGE:
Thousands of electric customers in the Lake of the Ozarks area lost power early this morning as a severe thunderstorm passed through Mid-Missouri.
Nearly 1,300 customers of Ameren Missouri around the lake lost electricity during the storm, which blew through the region during the 3 a.m. hour. The company reported around 700 remained without power at 8 a.m.
The Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives also reported numerous early morning outages among its member cooperatives: 1,456 customers in Camden County; 1,366 in Morgan County and 154 in Miller County. By 8 a.m., Camden County reported 478 cooperative outages, Morgan with 191 and Miller had 187.
Other outage reports from rural electric cooperatives initially included 288 customers losing power in Maries County, 275 in Osage, 190 in Callaway, and 132 in Moniteau. By 8 a.m., Maries County reported 33 cooperative outages, 233 in Callaway, 81 in Osage, 47 in Moniteau and 54 in Cole County.
In addition, about 40 Ameren customers lost power during the storm in the Russellville area, according to the utility's outage website, which provides real time updates. The site showed service had been restored to nearly all of those customers by 8 a.m. Scattered outages were reported elsewhere.
Old Stage Road in Cole County was closed after the storm so that Ameren crews could respond to a downed power line there, authorities indicated. Other reports this morning noted utility lines or trees in the roadway in various locations throughout Mid-Missouri, including several streets in Jefferson City.