Severe Weather Wreaks Havoc: 10 Power Poles Down, Brighton Area Hit Hardest

BRIGHTON - The Brighton, Shipman and Bunker Hill areas were hit hard with thunderstorm winds around 7:50 a.m. on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Some in Carlinville were also without power for some time after it was hit around 8:21 a.m.

There was a report of 10 power poles knocked down just south of the Ameren Illinois Brighton Substation and 1,500 customers without power, Brian Bretsch, a spokesperson for Ameren Illinois, said in the early afternoon on Wednesday.

Bretsch said Ameren had a fuse to trip inside a substation in the Carlinville area after the outage for some started. Crews patrolled the area and did not find any damage, he added. The fuse break closed power to 564 customers and was restored by 10:25 a.m.

Olivia Jaja, a St. Louis National Weather Service meteorologist, said they had received information about the damage in the Brighton-Bunker Hill area and said a line of severe storms moved through and produced strong wind gusts that damaged trees and a few buildings.

“The thunderstorm had reorganized crossing the river into a more favorable environment for a thunderstorm to have wind gusts to cause this type of damage,” Jaja said.

Southwestern Community Unit School District #9 said due to power outages in Brighton and Medora, the Southwestern School District dismissed on Thursday as follows:

“Students who live in Brighton were dismissed from Brighton North at 9:30 a.m.,” the district said in a statement on Thursday. “Students on bus routes will be returned to home by bus starting at 9:30 a.m. All other buildings were dismissed at 10 a.m. Buses then finished routes home.”

Thanks to 618 Drone Video Service for the overhead photos of pole damage in the region from the Thursday storm.

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