(KTTS News) — City Utilities says about 5,500 customers are without power as of 8:30 p.m. Monday.

Members of the Missouri Public Utility Alliance (MPUA) arrived in Springfield Monday to help CU restore power.

Crews will work until all customers who can receive power have their electricity restored.

Press Release

Crews from Missouri Public Utility Alliance (MPUA) member utilities have arrived in Springfield to assist with restoration efforts.

Utilities assisting through the mutual-aid request include Columbia, Hannibal, Kirkwood, and Independence.

They will be assisting CU electric line and tree crews, on-site contract crews, and will be joined by additional crews responding from Colorado, Arkansas, and Iowa.

Crews will continue to work through the night until all customers, who can receive power, have been restored.

There were more than 15,000 outages during the peak outage period, and currently 5,500 customers are without power.

Earlier Story

Springfield City Utilities says it could take at least 48 hours before power is restored to people still without electricity.

Storms with 60 to 70 mph winds pounded the Ozarks Sunday night into Monday morning, snapping tree limbs and knocking out power in Missouri and Arkansas.

CU spokesman Joel Alexander says this is the largest storm outage event CU has dealt with in the last 8 to 10 years.

More than 15,000 customers lost power.

By noon Monday, that number had dropped to around 8,000.

Alexander says some people won’t be able to have the power turned on until a licensed electrician can repair their weather.

Alexander says contractor crews from across the country are on the way to help.

CU has also reached out to mutual aid electric partners for immediate assistance.

Original Story

City Utilities says less than 11,000 customers are without power this morning after strong storms hit Springfield overnight.

Parts of southeast and southwest Springfield were hit the hardest.

The National Weather Service says 60 to 70 mph winds were reported, with a few reports of winds as strong as 80 mph.

Storms knocked down tree limbs from Nevada to Springfield to Branson.

Alexander says CU has declared a large scale emergency and called in contract crews to help restore power.

Every CU line crew is out working.

There’s no timetable for when power will be fully restored.

Alexander says its going to take a while in some places.

At one time, more than 15,000 CU customers were without power.