Residents across the metro-east are without power because of high winds, according to Ameren Illinois.

"When you deal with high winds like we are today and like we expect tomorrow, it's not unusual to have outages," Ameren spokesman Leigh Morris said. "Our crews are working very hard to restore power and we expect that the outages should be short in duration."

The company's outage map on Thursday morning indicated that people were without electricity in parts of Belleville, Collinsville, Fairview Heights, Freeburg, Mascoutah, Marissa, New Athens, Troy and Waterloo. But Morris said the map is changing from moment to moment as power is restored in some places and problems pop up in others.

Ameren said 3,400 customers lost power Thursday morning.

Morris said the main two reasons for power outages during wind storms are branches and trees coming down on power lines and the lines themselves bouncing until connections break.

Residents with power outages are urged to call Ameren Illinois at 1-800-755-5000. Morris said they should watch to see if their neighbors power comes on while theirs remains off. Morris said during widespread problems like windstorms there is the possibility of secondary outages on private property that might not be noticed when crews restore the main lines.

"If you notice your power is out and your neighbors' power has come back on, make sure to call us," Morris said. "We'll come back and get it back on as soon as possible."