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   Good news for those still cleaning up from Friday's storms.  Ameren reports that the power has been restored to almost all electric customers in St. Charles County and the metro-east.  

   Steady progress is also being made to repair damage in infrastructure in St. Louis County where an EF-3 tornado took down more than a hundred power poles.  Ameren officials say more than 500 poles were damaged area wide.  

   Ameren's Michael Moehn says it's been a big job with a big price tag. "Roughly speaking we're probably spending about  $3 million a day to put the system back together." Moehn says eventually that cost will be passed along to consumers.

   As of 2:50 a.m. Tuesday, about 14,000 St. Louis County residents remain in the dark.  That's down from more than 35,000 Monday morning and well over 90,000 on Friday.  

   Boeing employees will be heading back to work Tuesday morning after Friday's storms knocked out power to the Hazelwood facility, forcing it to close.  

   Some buildings were still in the dark Monday night, forcing the aerospace company to cancel work for many third shift employees overnight.  

   Company officials say that by 3:30 Tuesday morning, Ameren crews had restored power to all Boeing buildings.  First shift employees are expected to report to work.

A quick traffic note. MoDOT is closing 170 between 70 and 270 until 3PM on Monday.

They are giving Ameren crews time to restring power lines over the interstate. Drivers are encouraged to use 70 or 270 as a detour. 

   Kratz Elementary School in the Riteneour School District is closed due to the power outage in St. Ann.

   Riverview Gardens summer school classes have been cancelled for Monday, June 3rd.  The closure is due to storm damage and power outages to the districts four schools hosting summer school.

   The St. Louis Archdioceses School, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta in Ferguson, Mo. will also be closed on Monday, due to the lack of power from Friday’s storm.

   The Ferguson-Florissant school district is making changes to its summer programs, due to Friday’s storm damage to buildings and power outages.

   Monday’s summer classes at McCluer High School and Johnson-Wabash Elementary School have been cancelled.  Classes will resume on Tuesday, June 4th at the following locations:  Johnson-Wabash Elementary summer school will be held at Duchesne Elementary School, located at 100 South New Florissant Road.  McCluer High summer school will be relocated to McCluer North at 705 North Waterford Drive.  The districts other summer program, Adventure Camp; is being moved to Combs Elementary School located at 300 St. Jean Street in Florissant, effective Monday, June 3rd.

   Kratz Elementary School in the Riteneour School District is closed due to the power outage in St. Ann.

   Riverview Gardens summer school classes have been cancelled for Monday, June 3rd.  The closure is due to storm damage and power outages to the districts four schools hosting summer school.

   The St. Louis Archdioceses School, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta in Ferguson, Mo. will also be closed on Monday, due to the lack of power from Friday’s storm.

   The Ferguson-Florissant school district is making changes to its summer programs, due to Friday’s storm damage to buildings and power outages.

   Monday’s summer classes at McCluer High School and Johnson-Wabash Elementary School have been cancelled.  Classes will resume on Tuesday, June 4th at the following locations:  Johnson-Wabash Elementary summer school will be held at Duchesne Elementary School, located at 100 South New Florissant Road.  McCluer High summer school will be relocated to McCluer North at 705 North Waterford Drive.  The districts other summer program, Adventure Camp; is being moved to Combs Elementary School located at 300 St. Jean Street in Florissant, effective Monday, June 3rd.

   Ameren crews continue to work around the clock to restore power to those affected by Friday night's storms.

   The EF-3 tornado carved a 32 mile path of destruction from Weldon Spring to Ferguson and tore down over 200 poles critical to supplying electricity to tens of thousands of customers. Ameren's Michael Moehn says replacing the 70 foot poles is extremely labor intensive.

   "This is what we would call sub-transmission lines," Moehn said. "So the way it works is, we have to get this installed first because this feeds substations which then feed neighborhoods. So what we have to do is come in and disconnect everything from the existing poles, and then reset the new pole, and reconnect everything."

   Moehn urges anyone who sees a downed pole or power line to stay away from it and call Ameren immediately. (1-800-552-7583)

   Moehn says about 90,000 customers were left in the dark from Friday's storms.

   He says it is one of the top wind-damaging outbreaks in recent memory.  "This certainly ranks up there with the top two or three in the past six or seven years. Again, the amount of sub-transmission with these really high poles, that kind of damage is significant."

   Moehn expects most customers will have power restored by later today, although some may have to wait until tomorrow.  As of 6:00 a.m. today, 36,000 electric customers in St. Charles and St. Louis Counties were still without power.  Another 1,000 customers in Madison County were still in the dark.   

   Another line of storms is pushing through the St. Louis area as of 7:00 a.m. Monday. Severe storms that pushed through the St. Louis metro area early Monday morning brought strong winds and lightning.  The storms caused scattered power outages that plunged thousands of residents into the dark.

   As of 7:05 a.m., about  88-hundred people are without power on the Missouri  side of the river with about half in St. Louis County and another 19-hundred in the Metro East-mainly in St. Clair County.

   With another line of potentially severe weather expected to push through the metro-area Thursday, Ameren has place crews on both sides of the river on stand-by.  Ameren officials say they've mobilized personnel and equipment to facilitate their response to any storm-related power outages.  

   But Ameren officials say there are some things customers who lose power during the storms need to do.  First, officials say, report the outage.  Don't assume the power company knows your lights are out.

   Second, they remind customers to stay away from downed power lines and always assume that any lines that have fallen are still live wires.  Report the downed lines immediately.

   They say to stay out of the way of power company crews who are working to repair lines and restore power.

   And finally, they ask customers to be patient.  Crews will get repairs made as quickly as they can do so safely.

   More tips can be found at Ameren's online Outage Center. 

UPDATE 1:32 PM:

Power outages have decreased to just under 1400.

Over 5,000 customers in St. Louis city are reporting power outages at this time.

That includes the corridor of Hampton between Forest Park and I-44. We also got calls that the St. Louis Zoo was without power. A Zoo official tells KTRS News they are moving visitors out of the areas with animals--the animals are fine, but visitor buildings have no lights on. Visitors are allowed to wait in the Living World exhibit.

The outages are affecting customers in the zip codes of 63110, 63116, and 63139.

   Downed power lines mean the lights are out in several parts of the metro area. Ameren opened their Emergency Operations Center just after p.m. Wednesday.  Utility officials say crews will work through the night, but many residents will remain without power until at least Thursday afternoon.  Ameren will bring in additional crews Thursday morning. 

   As of 2:00 a.m, Ameren was reporting more than 30,000 Missouri customers without power - most of them in St. Louis County.  

   About 4,000 metro-east customers also remain in the dark.

   Outages can be reported here.