More than 400 remain without power in wake of Monday evening storms

About 400 people remain without power across the metro-east after Monday evening storms caused wide-spread outages.

According to Ameren’s outage map, as of Tuesday afternoon, one pocket of outages includes areas from west Belleville, to Centreville, East St. Louis and parts of Fairview Heights.

Ameren spokesman Brian Bretsch said crews have been delayed in restoring power because down lines causing the outage are in an area dense with trees and brush that crosses a creek.

An estimate of when power is expected to be restored was not immediately available.

Another pocket, which ranged from the northern part of Collinsville to Pontoon Beach and Granite City where Southwestern Illinois College had to close its Sam Wolf Campus because of the electricity being out, has had power restored.

Bretsch said storms that included gusty winds and torrential downpours of rain caused dozens of power lines to be downed across the area. At the peak of the outage, about 3,300 people were without power.

Bretsch said crews have been brought in from surrounding communities to repair the lines and get electricity in service as soon as possible.

This story was originally published June 14, 2016 at 6:54 AM with the headline "More than 400 remain without power in wake of Monday evening storms."