Monday’s severe winter storms may be dissipating over the northern Atlantic Ocean now, but the Midwest is still feeling the impact.
Currently, 13 percent of Knox County is without power and Peoria County still has outages reported by 15 percent of customers. Stark County, where 25 percent of the population had outages this morning, is up to 46 percent now.
Ameren Illinois reports a peak of more than 76,000 customers were without power at 4:50 p.m. yesterday and as of 9:30 last night, crews had restored power to 83,000 customers.
Galesburg Fire Chief Tom Simkins says 2,000 residents in town had no power this morning, adding that Ameren hopes to have Galesburg fully powered by 8 tonight.
He says the widespread outages prompted the American Red Cross to open First United Methodist Church as a warming shelter for those in need.
Simkins tells WGIL the shelter will likely only serve a handful of people, but it makes a difference for those who do need it.
“Most people either usually go to relatives’ or ride it out at home,” he says. “That’s kinda why we don’t just open one every time we have something. But I got a couple calls, so it’s a good thing.”
Outages aren’t the only lingering effects felt. The Galesburg Police Department says the stretch of Illinois Route 41 between between Knox highways 26 and 5, which had been closed last night due to downed power poles, opened before 4 p.m. today.
While outages have been the main concern in the immediate area, the National Weather Service says locations along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers have flood advisories or warnings in effect until further notice.
