Citizens Electric restores electricity in Perryville

PERRYVILLE Mo. (KBSI) – Crews have worked tirelessly around the clock to ensure that every member in the community has their electricity restored. 

Storms have swept through starting Sunday January 5 leaving over 12 thousand members without power. 

J.W. Hackwork with Citizens Electric says they have been working tirelessly for the past two weeks to restore heat and power.

“Yeah. So, we started seeing our first outage, first outages on Sunday, on fifth and so and the height of the height of the outage, it was 12,500. And so, we’ve seen a significant reduction in the number of outages that we have.”

Citizens Electric has been putting in the work to make sure businesses and citizens in the area without power can be restored to normal. Citizens Electric says that the people have been understanding through the process as there are several going through the same issue. 

“You know, I would say that our members are supportive, of, of citizens. And we’ve had an outpouring of support from different businesses in the community supporting our line workers. And, and we are just it’s very, the outpouring of support has just really been incredible. And we very much appreciate it.”

If you were without heat or power, there were warming centers open around the area or always feel free to contact the Citizens Electric line for updates on power restoration. 

“Well, first off, if there are any sort of downed power lines or any, you know, any, any damage to a power line, make sure that they, they don’t touch that don’t handle the power line, that they didn’t contact us. But you know if folks are in need of a warming center, there are some warming centers around Perryville. In the area that members can go to, to, to the, you know, get some services if they, if they need, but we are working really, really hard. And as I mentioned, we have more than 140 linemen on the ground trying to restore service.”

Citizens Electric deployed 140 linemen and partnered with mutual teams such as Crawford Electric Cooperative and Cuivre River Electric Cooperative as well as tree trimming crews to speed up the restoration efforts. 

In total 152 utility poles and various other pieces of equipment were repaired or replaced over the past week leaving over twenty-thousand-man hours worked. 

And so, we’re committed to getting these folks back on,” said Hackworth.