Cole County storm damage update Storm cleanup continues as thousands still lack power City of JeffersonPublic works crews clear trees downed in a storm on Mohawk Drive on Monday, July 6, 2026. City of JeffersonPublic works crews clear trees downed in a storm on Moh awk Drive on Monday, July 6, 2026. City of JeffersonPublic works crews clear trees downed in a storm on Mohawk Drive on Monday, July 6, 2026. KMIZA metal carport lies twisted after a severe storm in Versailles, Missouri, on Saturday, July 4, 2026. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)  Thousands of Ameren Missouri customers remain without power after the storms blew through on the July 4 weekend. Utility crews expect to restore power to most customers by Tuesday night after winds stronger than 100 miles per hour tore through parts of Mid-Missouri over the holiday weekend, leaving thousands without electricity and causing widespread damage across Cole County. Ameren Missouri Central Division Director Jason Haynam said roughly 30,000 customers lost power when the storms moved through Saturday. By Monday afternoon, that number had been reduced to about 6,000. "We expect to have the majority of our customers back on by tomorrow night," Haynam said. Reports of high winds on Saturday. The utility's online outage map showed more than 1,300 customers powerless in Camden County and more than 2,000 each in Miller and Morgan counties. Hundreds also remained without power in Cole and Osage counties, where Osage City was closed to the public. Cole County was among the hardest-hit areas. Jefferson City Public Works crews were on Mohawk Drive on Monday morning, clearing downed trees, according to a city government Facebook post. The National Weather Service surveyed the damage Monday and determined straight-line winds reached about 105 miles per hour. Emergency responders say they fielded 86 storm-related calls.  "At the height of the incident, there were 58 simultaneous calls for service, and all of the agencies were working together to triage and make sure that they received a response as appropriate," Cole County Emergency Services Chief Eric Hoy said.  Despite the extensive damage, officials reported no injuries. "We really lucked out on no injuries," Cole County Sheriff John Wheeler said. Hoy said all city and county roads had been reopened by Monday afternoon, and no homes were destroyed or suffered major structural damage, although several recreational vehicles were damaged. Power restoration remains the largest challenge. The Mid-Missouri area had more broken power poles than any part of the state Saturday, said Ameren spokesperson Evan Asher. On the east side of Jefferson City, Ameren crews spent Monday working to replace 12 transmission poles that either snapped or lost their tops after trees crashed into them during the storm. "We saw multiple tree limbs, trees themselves uprooted, sheared off, and it took down quite a few power lines, arms on poles, and conductor on the ground as well," Haynam said. Haynam added that replacing the damaged infrastructure is a lengthy process because of the size of the poles. "The poles we're talking about here are roughly 80-to-85 feet in the air, so they take extra long than your normal distribution poles that are typically somewhere in the 40-foot range," Haynam said. "You're talking multiple hours for multiple guys at any given pole." Before repairs can even begin, crews must first remove debris and make each work site safe. "Some of the challenges we face are just what you're seeing around town," Haynam said. "First is we have to make the scene safe. We have to either work with the county or city, as well as our tree crews, to clean up the area first, get the trees off our lines, remove broken equipment and then prepare the site so we can get new poles in the ground." Haynam said Ameren maintains a proactive tree-trimming program but cannot remove every tree near its power lines because of property-right limitations. “We cycle through our circuits every so many years, that we actually get out ahead of them and trim back limbs. But we can't always remove all the trees. We only have the right to go so far, Haynam explained.  He added that while Saturday's storm was stronger than anticipated, the utility had resources ready to respond. “We are always prepared for storms.  We have storm trailers available; we have access stock. In this case, we have two fiberglass poles that are going to go into these structures to try to storm-harden these for future use. We keep those on hand as well for emergencies,” Hayman said. “This particular storm was not exactly expected, though. But at the same time we quickly were able to mobilize, get all available resources out, and get repairs done and underway quickly.”  The fiberglass poles are installed between traditional wooden poles to help prevent a domino effect, reducing the risk that the failure of one pole will bring down an entire stretch of power lines. "We are very weather aware," Haynam said. "We often will have pre-planning meetings when we see serious weather on the horizon. We will stage equipment in advance if we're able to." But Monday’s heat and humidity across Mid-Missouri also presented challenges for crews.  "Our linemen are working under this heat and this humidity," Haynam said. "Trying to stay hydrated is a challenge. So we rotate through who's in the bucket, who's on the ground. We will take short breaks, try to find shade when we can." Jefferson City officials said city departments have also been responding since the storm moved through Saturday afternoon. "The storm on Saturday afternoon hit a relatively small area within city limits," Jefferson City spokeswoman Molly Bryan said. "Our street department crews, our fire department and our wastewater division have been actively responding to the damage." Bryan said four wastewater pump stations lost power and are currently operating on generators because electrical lines serving those facilities were damaged. She added the city's yard waste site is expected to reopen Wednesday for residents cleaning up storm debris. Jefferson City firefighters also responded in force during the storm. Fire Division Chief Ryan Lock said the department handled 31 calls for service on July 4 and called back 10 firefighters on overtime to assist. "We mainly cover the east side of town," Lock said. "We did mutual aid with other responding agencies, and worked in cohesion with them." Officials are also urging residents to use caution while cleanup continues. Hoy warned residents relying on generators to keep them outdoors and away from homes. "We understand that there's an ongoing power outage and that folks are becoming increasingly reliant on generator power," Hoy said. "There should be an open air away from a residence or any ventilation equipment, and make sure that you have a carbon monoxide alarm in place." Hoy also noted restoring service to rural customers may take longer because of the distance between homes. "The rural residents in our county, they're just as important as anybody in the city," Hoy said. "But it is going to take some time for them to get out and address the one or two residences in the rural parts of the county." Meanwhile, Osage City remained closed to the public Monday while utility crews continued repairs. Wheeler asked residents to avoid the area unless they live there or are authorized to enter. "We ask that only authorized people, residents there, be down in that area," Wheeler said. "We don't want anybody going down just to look around. There's a lot of equipment moving around down there." Wheeler added authorities want power restored before reopening the area. “We'd rather have the power back on before we allow people back there, because some residents left,” Wheeler said. We want to make sure that the residents can go there and secure their houses so we don't have any kind of looting or anything like that going on.” The post Power expected to be restored Tuesday for ‘majority’ of Ameren customers; Cole County cleanup continues appeared first on ABC17NEWS. ...read more read less