Ameren Illinois crews continue power restoration work

<div><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ameren Illinois crews have mobilized and continue power restoration efforts in response to a line of strong winds and thunderstorms that made their way across the Ameren Illinois service territory overnight. Customers in Sparta, Belleville, Ottawa and LaSalle are most impacted, with at least 125 power poles down in those areas, in addition to extensive tree damage impacting service in the area. </span></div>

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<div><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ameren Illinois activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at 3 p.m. on Tuesday to coordinate response efforts. Power has been restored to more than 22,330 customers since 5 p.m. yesterday. </span></div>

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<div><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">The company will be sending more than 180 field and support personnel to assist with the restoration effort in LaSalle County, where several tornadoes caused severe damage to the area early yesterday evening. An additional 110 resources are available to assist in the Carbondale area, where it is reported a tornado also hit yesterday evening. </span></div>

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<div><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ameren Illinois encourages customers to use the following safety tips during and after a storm:</span></div>

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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Call Ameren Illinois at 1-800-755-5000 as soon as possible to report a downed line, natural gas odor, or an outage.</span></li>

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<li><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Stay away from downed power lines because these lines may still be energized. During an outage, individuals are asked to stay indoors after sunset because downed lines may not be visible. Stay away from brush, shrubs and fallen trees that may be hiding these lines.</span></li>

<li><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">If your electric service is interrupted, unplug or protect sensitive computer and electronic equipment with a high-quality surge protector.</span></li>

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<div><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">In addition to the safety and outage information available at AmerenIllinois.com, customers and media can receive timely updates on outage restoration by following the Ameren Illinois news feed at twitter.com/AmerenIllinois&#160;and Facebook.com/AmerenIllinois.</span></div>

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