ST. LOUIS – On Thursday afternoon, Ameren Missouri gave two different updates on its power restoration efforts in north St. Louis following the May 16 tornado.
The first update, posted on social media just before 1 p.m., said crewmen had restored power to more than 200,000 customers since that day – more than 90% of those affected. Approximately 20 minutes later, an Ameren Missouri representative, speaking alongside Mayor Cara Spencer and other city officials, said the utility company had 105,000 outages at the peak of things Friday after the storm cleared out.
One could be forgiven for being confused by the large difference in those two numbers.
FOX 2 News reached out to Ameren Missouri for an explanation – and got one.
According to a company spokesman, both numbers are correct when viewed through a larger context. One that requires we look at the Ameren Missouri’s service territory.
Everything inside those green lines is part of Ameren Missouri’s service territory. As you can see, it extends into the Missouri Bootheel in the southeast, as far west as areas north of Kansas City, and to the northeast from Kirksville to the Mississippi River.
Both numbers, 200,000 and 105,000, are taken from the entire service territory. Exact outage numbers are not available for the parts of the St. Louis area affected by May 16 tornado: Richmond Heights and Clayton in St. Louis County, and the Central West End, The Ville, Greater Ville, and other neighborhoods in St. Louis City.
The 105,000 number applies to the immediate aftermath of the severe storms and tornadoes that hit the service territory on Friday, May 16. When Ameren Missouri says it has restored power to 200,000 customers, that is cumulative number; meaning all customers in the service territory from May 16 to Thursday, May 22.
The big takeaway is that, for the time being, when you hear about outages, understand that it is in reference to sizeable portion of the entire state and not just the St. Louis area. However, the Ameren Missouri Outage Map does provide up-to-date information for specific neighborhoods and areas experiencing outages.