A half-dozen Missouri state office buildings in and near downtown Jefferson City lost power Wednesday when a natural gas leak forced Ameren Missouri to shut down both gas and electric service to 1,300 customers.
Office of Administration spokeswoman Ryan Burns told the News Tribune on Thursday the affected state buildings included the Broadway and Jefferson State Office Buildings, the Supreme Court (including the attorney general's main offices), the State Health Lab and the Natural Resources department's Lewis and Clark Building and the Main Post Office, which includes state offices on the second and third floors.
"The Capitol and Governor's Mansion each have backup generators," Burns said, so they continued to have electricity during the 35-minute outage.
She said the Jefferson, Broadway and Health Lab buildings also have emergency generators - but they don't replace lost power to the entire building.
"The Health Lab generator backs up essential building functions," Burns said, "and the Jefferson and Broadway generators provide backup for necessities like emergency lighting and fire alarms."
She didn't say whether state officials are looking at getting more powerful generators to provide total backup services.
Those types of large generators are, typically, expensive and - hopefully - needed rarely.
"We appreciate Ameren working to restore power so quickly," Burns told the News Tribune, "and - as was the case (Wednesday) - we will ensure that government continues to operate to provide the needed services for the people of Missouri."