UPDATE: Peoria’s Classic Rock Station, 95.5, GLO, is back cranking out tunes from the best rock era at the always incredibly low cost of FREE. Mother Nature drop-kicked our transmitter site in Groveland, and we were off air from noon yesterday until 3 pm today when the ice melted off our transmiter antenae in rural Groveland, very hard to get to with flooding and trees blocking dirt roads. Mother Nature took away, but gave back GLO to central Illinois with a respite of just over a day.
We’re not alone in the power-outage/setback department. Almost the entire city of Washington saw its power grid knocked out by the icy, high-wind storm. The city of Peoria, Bartonville and Dunlap also reported thousands of homes without power, with around 25,000 Peoria homes without power at one point yesterday. Peoria’s power is not expected to return to 100% until Wednesday morning. Click HERE to read the latest power outage update from the Journal Star. Click HERE to view the power outage map (see below) from Ameren Illinois.
I walked my dogs for a couple miles this morning in my North Peoria subdivision which was still almost entirely without power today. My street, luckily, escaped power loss, but our internet and cable are still out, so my wife, who works out of the home, is unable to work. Today, I saw many large branches and limbs down on almost every yard. A few large trees were unrooted and blocked streets or fell on homes. A couple car windshields were smashed, as were a few fences. I even saw a front-yard lamp post knocked over by the wind.
That said, it’s no reason to troll on the internet about it being someone’s fault. Some 500 Ameren crews have been working non stop to repair upended poles and downed power lines. It’s still cold and windy, and these guys are working on little rest, so don’t place blame there. If you’re without power and don’t have a generator, call a relative with power or get to a warming center.
Soon, power will be restored, and life will return to normal. Then, we’ll go back to bitching about trivial stuff. In the interim, you can listen to Peoria’s best classic rock the traditional way, at 95.5 FM or online. And remember, no one died; things can be replaced. Cheers!
Doc Watson
