Urbana, Iowa - July 12, 2011 – East-Central Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative reports that power was restored to some 2,200 members who were affected that the strong thunderstorms and winds that swept through Benton County early Monday morning.

According to Manager of Operations and Engineering, Steve Marlow, some 1,000 members are still without power this morning. "We have 31 line personnel with 18 trucks assisting East-Central's own crews, but there is extensive damage to our distribution system from falling trees and flying debris. Some 200 poles are broken and must be replaced. We also have to completely rebuild about 10 miles of three-phase circuits in western Benton County. The crews worked until 9:30 p.m. last night and were in the field again this morning at 5:30 a.m."

CEO Harry Ruth asks his members to limit consumption of electricity to the extent possible today. Said Ruth, "We still have three substations that are not energized because of damage to the transmission lines. A fourth substation, in Urbana, received extensive damage from flying debris. We are feeding the circuits of those substations from other substations, but the load on them is great. The less electricity our members use today, the better."

East-Central encourages members who still do not have power, and have not already done so, phone in their outage so staff can log the outage into their dispatch system.

Members may also obtain information regarding power restoration by logging onto East-Central's Web site at www.ecirec.coop.

East-Central will provide an updated report on its restoration efforts this afternoon.