Here's when Ameren expects to have your power back on

Roughly 83,000 Southern Illinois residents had their power restored by Saturday evening after crews worked around the clock to repair widespread damage caused by a severe storm Thursday evening.

Less than 2,000 customers were still without power in Southern Illinois as of 9 p.m. The majority of the remaining outages were in St. Clair County, according to Ameren's outage map.

Ameren estimated power would be restored to the remaining areas by midnight Saturday, according to a news release from the company.

The heat along with the widespread damage slowed restoration efforts, Ameren Illinois spokesman Brian Bretsch said. The storm damaged or destroyed 168 electric poles and 481 wires.

"We've got 600 boots on the ground doing their best for restoration. The reason the time is going to be a little long is the heat the crews are dealing with."

Bretsch said crews were reminded to slow down and stay hydrated as the metro-east remained under an excessive heat warning until 7 p.m. Sunday. The forecast called for temperatures to reach almost 100 degrees with a heat index up to 113 degrees.

He added these restoration estimates were established so that people can plan ahead to deal with the heat, rather than anticipating their power will be restored before it actually is.

He also reminded people to always call and report an outage — Bretsch said people often assume someone else has called and he said that delays restoration efforts. Anyone who needs to report an outage can call 1-800-755-5000.

St. Clair County EMA posted a list of cooling centers on the agency's Facebook page.

In Clinton County, cooling centers were set up Thursday in communities that still had power outages. The centers were set up at the Germantown American Legion, the St. Rose Fire Department and the Beckemeyer Fire Department.

A cooling center was set up at the Senior Center located at 305 N. Nashville St. in Okawville, after power was restored and then went out again. Ameren Illinois officials told customers on Friday afternoon that they are unsure what is causing the second outage and did not know when power would be restored.

"This storm is particularly challenging because of the extent of pole and wire damage, including a large number of single wires that are down in backyards and near customer premises," said Ron Pate, senior vice president of operations and technical services for Ameren Illinois. "We know that being without power is frustrating for our customers. Every available resource is on the ground working as quickly and safely as possible to get the power back on."

This story was originally published June 29, 2018 at 12:19 PM.