Crews Complete Restoration Following Back-to-Back Severe Storms
Springfield, Ill. — City Water, Light and Power (CWLP) and contract crews restored power to the final customers affected by last week's severe storms on Sunday evening, completing a massive restoration effort that returned service to more than 16,000 customers across Springfield and neighboring communities. The storms, which struck on consecutive nights, caused extensive damage to the electric system. An EF1 tornado with estimated winds of 110 mph on Wednesday, followed by thunderstorms producing wind gusts exceeding 80 mph on Thursday, brought down trees, snapped utility poles, damaged power lines, and impacted electric equipment throughout the service territory.
Wednesday’s storm left approximately 5,600 customers without power, primarily on Springfield’s north side. Damage included three 75-foot transmission poles, approximately 10 broken distribution poles, and numerous damaged crossarms, transformers, and power lines. Crews worked through the night and restored service to all but about 550 customers within 24 hours.
Thursday’s storm caused even more widespread outages, damaging additional poles and equipment and bringing down trees across the community. The storm caused 12 distribution feeders and 3 transmission lines to go out of service, leaving more than 11,000 customers without power across around 75 outage locations. Through a rapid and coordinated response, crews restored power to nearly 10,000 customers within the first 24 hours, reducing outages to 1,176 customers. The remaining outages were restored Sunday evening, with the last customers back in service before 9 p.m.
In response to the widespread damage, more than 100 CWLP employees and over 50 utility vehicles were deployed in the field. Contract crews supplemented restoration efforts with approximately 40 additional personnel and more than 30 trucks, allowing for around-the-clock repairs and restoration work between storm events.
Although customer restoration is complete, crews will continue working in the coming days to complete permanent repairs to the electric system.
"With our crews, we have to also thank in Electric Operations our Operators, Clerks, Troubleshooters, Line Construction, Substation, Relay, Communications, GIS, Engineering, Dispatchers and Maintenance Supervisors that put in long hours to help in this effort,” said CWLP Chief Utility Engineer Scott Rogers. "There is still a significant amount of repair work ahead for these groups and we have additional damaged poles to replace, equipment, and other infrastructure to fully stabilize the system. In some areas, brief planned outages may be necessary to safely complete those repairs and ensure the long-term reliability of our electric system."
Mayor Misty Buscher thanked crews and customers for their patience throughout the restoration effort.
"Being without power for hours—or in some cases days—is a major disruption for families and businesses, especially when storm damage also impacts homes and property," Buscher said. "I am grateful to our CWLP employees, contract crews, and everyone who worked around the clock to restore service as quickly and safely as possible. Their dedication helped our community recover from two significant storm events in just a matter of days."
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