With winter weather comes power interruptions, and Three Rivers Electric Cooperative worked through the day Tuesday to restore power to its members.
The snow that blanketed the Mid-Missouri area knocked out power for many of the cooperative's members throughout the area. The rural electric cooperative, which covers Jefferson City and nearby communities, reported 737 members experiencing outages from the night's snowfall throughout its service area as of around 10 a.m. Tuesday. Rich Eisterhold, Three Rivers member services manager, noted there was a difference between the number of actual outages and the number of members affected, which is what the co-op's regular Facebook updates make reference to.
By around 2 p.m., Eisterhold said the number had dropped to 57 outages with 93 total members lacking power, mostly toward the Eldon area.
"It's the snow weighing down trees and touching the wires, or forcing the wires together," he said. "We're consolidating very well, and things are coming together. We have all available crews working on restoring power."
Eisterhold said there had been a few re-calls from members who had previously had their power restored, while crews were checking the meters to ensure things were up and running, and checking back in with areas that might need further attention.
Throughout the day's updates on the co-op's social media platform, the bulk of the reported outages were shown south of the Jefferson City area.
Employees of Ameren Missouri, which provides the area's investor-owned energy services, did not immediately respond to a request for information, though its online outage map only showed outages for the St. Louis area by the early afternoon.
To report an outage for Three Rivers members, call 1-800-892-2251. Ameren Missouri customers may report outages at 1-800-552-7583.