Tue, 16 Jan 2007
150,000 Ameren UE Customers Affected
Power Out for More Than 41 Hours
The whole country, it seems, has seen a massive cold front this last week. Here in St. Peters, freezing rain began falling on Friday afternoon and didn’t let up until Monday morning.
As a result of the harsh weather, ice accumulations on power lines and nearby trees caused widespread power outages throughout the region.
My neighborhood was significantly affected, as well: at about 2:00 a.m. Saturday, a series of short outages destroyed my movie-watching experience (Star Trek: the Motion Picture, if you must know). These brief-but-annoying blackouts were followed by a total failure of the grid throughout my subdivision at about 2:15 a.m. and continuing until approximately 7:00 p.m. Sunday.
We were not alone, of course. As of today, many thousands still have not had power restored, and more than forty Midwesterners have died.
This is Ameren UE’s third major outage in the last twelve months.
During our outage, the house’s interior temperature dropped as low as 57 degrees Fahrenheit. That was cold, but not unbearable. And, fortunately, our hot water heater continued to function despite the lack of electricity, due to a bi-metalic thermostat and natural gas pilot light.
Still, it was an uncomfortable experience, one I don’t wish to repeat.
posted at: 19:50 | permanent link to this entry
Marc Elliot Hall St. Peters, Missouri
Page created: 21 January 2002
Page modified: 31 December 2009
