UPDATE 8/3: City Utilities has canceled the large-scale emergency and returned to normal operations, according to a press release.
Customers who have damaged electric service to their homes must have licensed electricians make repairs before the electric service can be reconnected.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — After storms on Sunday, more than 15,000 had their power knocked out in Springfield. With temperatures rising, it made for an uncomfortable week.
While crews have made significant progress, there are still about 100 people in Springfield without power.
Many of those without power are waiting for an electrician to fix part of their home like a weather head before City Utilities can restore their power.
“The weather head is what comes from the overhead power line, from the distribution line, usually in the backyard,” Joel Alexander with City Utilities said. “Sometimes it can be along a city street that comes directly from that utility pole to the, to your home. The weather head actually is where that connection is made on your house.”
When the weather head on a house is broken, it becomes dangerous for crews to restore power until it’s fixed.
“Restoring power to that could cause a fire, could cause, you know, serious damage to the home or the electronics within that home,” Alexander said. “So for safety’s sake, we’re not going to do that until it’s Been repaired by a licensed electrician and certified.”
Crews have been working around the clock to restore power and other companies have come to town to help out as well.
“So we really thank them for their work on that. But all in all, this has gone very smoothly,” Alexander said. “We don’t ever want things like this to happen, but we also can’t control what the weather does.”
City Utilites said it has plans in place for emergencies like Sunday nights storm
“The contractors that have come in to help us with this will be paid by their companies and we’ll reimburse those companies,” Alexander said. “But that’s not something that customers are going to see on their bill.”
City Utilites also said that customers only pay for the power they use, so when the power is out customers are not charged.
