CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The Alliant Energy Co. issued a statement Friday, claiming it will return all its customer up to full power by midnight Tuesday or sooner.
“We have restored power to more than half of our customers who were impacted by Monday’s storms,” Terry Kouba, senior vice president at Alliant Energy and president of the Iowa Utility Co., said Friday. “We will have power available to a significant number of customers who are still without power by the end of the day Tuesday, Aug. 18, and we are working day and night to make it happen even sooner.”
Monday’s unprecedented derecho storm struck central and eastern Iowa morning, leaving a quarter-million Alliant Energy customers without electrical service.
Alliant reported Friday that more than 700 crews — triple the normal “boots on the ground” — are now working on restoration, and more help is arriving daily to assist. The utility company plans to replace more than 2,500 poles across the state – the equivalent of 8 months of work the company normally completes – and they aim to complete the work in only seven days.
“We appreciate your patience during this very difficult outage,” said Kouba.
