Monroe County Electric Cooperative announced shortly after 6 p.m. Friday that it would be having a widespread power outage due to maintenance work by Ameren on its transmission side.

MCEC said for this reason, its Waterloo, Poe and Fults substations would be down for about two hours.

“Due to the severe cold, if the issue is not fixed immediately, the risk of a prolonged outage is very high,” MCEC stated. “We apologize in advance for the inconvenience and untimeliness of this outage.”

For an MCEC outage map, click here.

Portions of the Burksville area serviced by Ameren had been without power or partially without power since about 3 p.m. Friday, according to residents of that area. 

MCEC further explained that Ameren had a wire broke going to a substation switch due to the cold and wind. MCEC had to shut down its substations so Ameren could get its wire repaired and restore power to its customers.

Those in need of a warming center due to this outage were encouraged to call the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department at 618-939-8651.

MCEC reported at 8:20 p.m. that “everyone’s power should be on.”