SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Aug. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- After severe storms left about 20,000 customers without power yesterday afternoon and evening, the Ameren Illinois Utilities (AmerenCIPS, AmerenCILCO, AmerenIP) have restored service to about 17,000 customers. The Ameren Illinois Utilities (AIU) anticipates service will be restored to the remaining customers by the end of today. At 8:20 a.m. today, 2,845 customers were without electrical service. However, some isolated outages may persist into tomorrow. Severe weather today could cause new outages. Also, some AIU customers may need to make repairs to the facilities they own, such as the meter base, weatherhead or point of attachment. This work should be performed by a professional electrical contractor. These repairs must be completed before service can be safely restored. A detailed explanation of this work is available at IllinoisOutage.com. In order to speed the restoration work, AIU sent one of its Storm Trailers to Williamsville. Storm Trailers are mobile storerooms, stocked with the material field crews need to get the lights back on. The trailers can be moved to central staging sites to provide essential materials to areas that have experienced the greatest damage. AIU also opened a special Customer Service Center in the Williamsville Community Center for customers who do not have access to phone service or wish to speak in person to a service representative. It will be open today until 8:00 p.m. Customers who are still without service or have questions may call AIU's Customer Service Centers: AmerenCIPS - 1-888-789-2477, AmerenCILCO - 1-888-672-5252 and AmerenIP - 1800-755-5000. The Ameren Illinois Utilities (AmerenCIPS, AmerenCILCO, AmerenIP) have been providing safe, reliable energy delivery service for more than a century. The Ameren Illinois Utilities deliver energy to 1.2 million electric and 840,000 natural gas customers in more than 1,200 communities within a 43,700-square-mile service territory. EDITOR'S NOTE: Please see IllinoisOutage.com for storm damage and service restoration photos. DATASOURCE: Ameren Illinois Utilities CONTACT: Leigh Morris, +1-217-535-5228, or Victoria Busch, +1-618-614-3032, or Neal Johnson, +1-309-677-5284, all of Ameren Illinois Utilities Web Site: http://www.ameren.com/ http://www.illinoisoutage.com/

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