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News > In the Headlines
EUREKA -- Christy Casey, owner of Images 126, a hair, tanning and fitness salon on Main Street in Eureka, noticed the lights flicker once about 1:40 p.m. Thursday and was concerned. Power outages had already been reported throughout Central Illinois, and Casey had two customers in tanning beds and others in the middle of hair appointments. A few seconds later, the entire city of Eureka went dark and remained that way for 3½ hours. Some residents may not get their power back until tonight. Eureka wasn't alone in its power woes. Ice-and wind-damaged power lines throughout much of Central and northern Illinois left thousands of people in the dark for varying periods of time Wednesday and Thursday. "We lost a lot of business, but if there is a silver lining, it's that I didn't have anyone with wet hair at the time," Casey said. "I would have had no way to get it dry, and it's still very cold outside." While repairs continue today, utility crews should be helped by favorable weather. Even the low temperatures aren't expected to dip below freezing until Sunday night, and no rain is expected until Saturday. On the bright side, area police agencies reported few, if any, problems with ice on pavement. All of Ameren's approximately 2,800 customers in Eureka were without electricity until 5:11 p.m. About 400 of them remained without power late Thursday night, and power may not be fully restored until tonight, Ameren officials said. "I've seen portions of the town without power for lengths of time, but I have never seen the entire town out," said Casey's husband, Bill. The outage forced Eureka College to cancel afternoon and evening classes. With the cafeteria closed, students were served box lunches offering a choice of peanut butter and jelly, bologna, turkey or tuna sandwiches. Also, chef salads were available. "You have to have a contingency plan in case something goes wrong, but this has worked very well considering the circumstances," said college food services director Kathy Moore. Several schools in the Normal-based Unit 5 school district lost power at various times Thursday, but classes continued. "We have emergency lighting at all our schools," said Unit 5 spokeswoman Dayna Brown. "We're very hesitant to send kids home in the middle of the day" because there may not be parents home. While utility crews worked throughout Wednesday night to restore power, outages began to creep up again during the day Thursday, utility officials said. Late Thursday night, Ameren and Corn Belt Energy Corp. officials reported more than 900 customers still were without power in the Carlock, Chenoa, Colfax, Eureka, Morton, Normal, Roanoke, Secor and Washington areas. At that time they reported about 7,800 outages statewide, mostly to the north and northwest of Peoria, which was down from a peak of more than 25,000 earlier in the day. ComEd reported 5,000 customers without power in the Livingston County and Streator areas at the worst point Thursday, but all power was restored by late Thursday night. Phyllis Coulter contributed to this report. |
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