Winter storm clean up efforts continue in Johnson County

JOHNSON COUNTY, Ill. (KBSI) – Winter storm clean up efforts continue in Johnson County.

Johnson County Sheriff Pete Sopczak said the community is working hard to recover from Sunday’s storm.

“All the state routes are pretty clear,” he said, “but our rural county routes – we’re having problems getting them all cleared because there’s so many trees down.”

With heavy ice still weighing down the trees, Sheriff Sopczak said the trees will continue to break until it warms up.

“Every time they get one cleared, two more trees fall over somewhere else,” he said. “As long as this weather stays cold and this stuff isn’t melting off the trees, we’re going to continue to have stuff fall and who knows where it’s going to fall next.”

As of Wednesday evening, more than a thousand customers are without power in the Shawnee National Forest and Rend Lake areas.

SEIC director of member services Brent Goforth said at the peak they had more than 7,000 customers without power. They are working hard to get the power back on for the remaining 1,200 customers without.

“I think it’s a testament to the dedication and hard work of not only our internal employees, but those that we’ve brought in from other co-ops, external contractors, and the folks here behind the scenes,” he said.

A temporary warming center is set up at Vienna High School – the entrance J doors will be unlocked throughout the night.

People can go inside the commons area to warm up and charge their phones using the available outlets.