Thousands of Iowans remain without electricity today, but those working to restore the juice say they’re making some headway. Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives spokesperson Ann Foster says they have about 21,000 customers are still without power. Foster says at the peak of the storm they had 100,000 people without power.
Foster says the relatively good weather the last couple of days has helped the 800 co-op line workers who’re on the job. She says the forecast for more bad weather is a concern. Foster says they are concerned about the forecast and are watching it closely, hoping to get everyone back on-line before the new storm hits.
Foster says however, there will be some people who will be without power for seven to 10 days, and they encourage those customers to go to emergency shelters. Foster says more than 4,300 power poles were down or broken.
Foster says right now one of the issues is the transmission structures that bring in power from out of state that are down. The IAEC has prepared a map of the co-op outages, and posted storm photos on its website .