Ameren Illinois field crews and support staff continue to battle weather and hazardous working conditions to restore service in the wake of yesterday’s strong winter storm that brought blizzard conditions to much of Illinois.

Service outages peaked at over 40,500 customers yesterday by almost 7 pm. At 11:30 a.m. this morning, about 6,800 customers were still without power.

It is anticipated customers who are still without service will have their power restored by late this evening. However, outages may last longer if weather and working conditions deteriorate. Crews continue to work to replace broken utility poles and repair downed wires.

Ameren Illinois has activated the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to direct the service restoration effort. About 1,000 Ameren Illinois field and support personnel have been assigned to the service restoration effort.

A major cause of the power outages has been a phenomenon known as "galloping conductors." Galloping conductors can occur when strong winds blow across power lines, causing the lines to move up and down in a violent manner. This movement is known as "galloping," which often results in damage to cross arms on poles, insulators and even the wires, causing power outages.