City of Springfield, Illinois Misty Buscher - Mayor




Skip Navigation Links
 

CITY OF SPRINGFIELD WEATHER RESOURCES



  03/05/24 -The City of Springfield Addresses Flash Flooding and Urges Caution at Underpasses


The City of Springfield is currently experiencing inclement weather conditions, leading to flash flooding in several areas, especially at the underpasses. We advise avoiding flooded underpasses during your commute. These areas are particularly prone to dangerous flooding, which can pose risks to both pedestrians and vehicles. Our dedicated crews are working to mitigate the effects of this weather event.

The safety and well-being of our residents is our utmost priority. We urge all residents and commuters to exercise caution and prioritize safety during these conditions.

We understand the inconvenience that these weather conditions may cause, and we are committed to resolving the situation as quickly and efficiently as possible. Updates regarding the current weather situation and any changes to the conditions will be communicated through official city channels, including our website, social media platforms, and local news outlets.

We appreciate the understanding and cooperation of our community as we work to address this issue.

  Quick Contact Guide

  • Clearing Debris from Sidewalks/Roadways: 217-789-2255 or 217-789-2246
  • CWLP Electric Outage Hotline: 217-789-2121
  • Water Trouble: 217-789-2323 Ext 2
  • American Red Cross: 1-800-733-2767
  • Help For Seniors
    • AgeLinc: (217) 787-9234 (Office) or (800) 252-2918 (Toll Free)
    • The Senior Services Center of Central Illinois: (217) 528-4035 or (217) 528-3882
  • For non-emergency Fire and Police
    • Police Dispatch: 217-788-8311
    • Fire Dispatch: 217-788-8450
    • Police Front Desk - Assisting with filling a report: 217-788-8325

 General Reminders


Be Aware of Home Repair Scams and Charitable Solicitation Scams

Residents should be wary of door-to-door solicitors promise to speed up the insurance or building permit process and/or con artists posing as charitable organizations or governmental disaster relief organizations. on artists are often transients who will move quickly into a troubled area. Though most building contractors and charitable organizations are honest, natural disasters attract scam artists.

Ask to see state or local permits or licenses of anyone approaching you about services related to the disaster. When possible, use established local contractors recommended by people you know and trust. Get receipts for all repair payments including cash. Do not make a check payable to a person other than the owner or the company name. Never give out personal information or bank account information over the phone unless the caller's identity can be verified.

Keep Sewer Inlets Clear

Help alleviate flooding. The public can assist in keeping sewer inlets near your property clear. Inlets can easily get clogged with leaves and other debris and cause street flooding.

Trees & Branches and Debris on Property

City cleanup crews and many volunteer groups are working as quickly and safely as possible to clear debris and pick up fallen branches. Please collect branches and limbs and place them on the curb. Please do not place branches on center boulevards, manholes, drains or sidewalks. City branch pick-up will likely take weeks as we assess the city-wide damage caused by the recent storm. We are working diligently to access neighborhood branches as soon as possible.

For debris blocking roadways and sidewalks

Please understand Public Works crews are out and will address these as soon as possible. For new reports call Public Works: 217-789-2255 or 217-789-2246

Storm Damage To Your Home

If you have any damage to your home as a result of the storm, please contact your homeowners’ insurance, landlord and/or private contractor as soon as possible for repairs.

American Red Cross 1-800-733-2767

If you or a family member’s health has been impacted by outages or the storm, 217-787-7602

General CDC Tips for Power Outages, Food Safety & More

  cdc.gov

Tips for Staying Cool During Power Outages

Staying safe until power is restored is key. When a prolonged power outage occurs during hot weather, take steps to maintain safety and comfort until power is restored.

High winds that topple utility poles and power lines cause many summer outages. It’s important to stay clear of downed power lines at all times, even during cleanup efforts. Be alert to the possibility that tree limbs or debris may hide an electrical hazard.

Assume that any dangling wires you encounter are electrical and treat all downed or hanging lines as if they are energized and dangerous. If you are driving and come upon a downed power line, stay in your vehicle, warn others to stay away and contact emergency personnel or your electric utility. Also when driving, be careful at intersections where traffic lights may be out.

If power to your home is out for a prolonged period, know and understand important safety precautions and steps to cope with heat until power is restored:

  • Dress in loose, lightweight clothing and stay on the coolest, lowest level of your home.
  • Use natural ventilation to cool homes, and consider purchasing battery-powered fans.
  • Drink plenty of water and avoid heavy meals, caffeinated drinks and alcohol.
  • Keep refrigerator or freezer doors closed. A freezer that is half full or full can keep foods frozen 24 to 48 hours. Foods can stay safe in an unopened refrigerator up to four hours. If an outage lasts longer than four hours, remove and pack meat, milk and other dairy products in a cooler with ice.
  • Use safe alternative food preparations. A barbecue grill is an excellent way to prepare food. Always grill outside.
  • Check on friends and relatives—especially children, seniors, and those with medical conditions or disabilities. These people may need to seek emergency cooling shelters.
  • Keep a first-aid kit in your home and one in your car. Make sure that it includes scissors, tweezers, safety pins, aspirin, eyewash and rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide.
  • Close all drapes and blinds on the sunny side of your residence.
  • Take your family and pets to a basement or other cool location if you have one. Also consider going to an air-conditioned public place during warmer daytime hours.

During an outage, Safe Electricity and CWLP recommend turning off electrical appliances and unplugging major equipment, including air conditioning units, computers and televisions. Power sometimes comes back in surges, which can damage electronics. Your circuits could overload when power returns if all your electronics are still on and plugged in. Leave one light on to indicate that power has been restored. Wait a few minutes then turn on other appliances and equipment one at a time.

If you use a standby generator, make sure a transfer safety switch is used or connect the appliance(s) directly to the generator output through an isolated circuit before you operate it. This prevents electricity from traveling back through the power lines, what’s known as “back feed.” Back feed creates danger for anyone near lines, particularly crews working to restore power.

Cooling centers throughout Springfield are operating and have power. Here is a list of operating cooling centers in Springfield:
  Cooling Centers

Safe Use of Generators

During a power outage, you may find yourself in the dark and unable to use your appliances for a period of time. A generator can provide temporary electricity that, depending on type, can power a few appliances or an entire building. While convenient during an outage, generators used improperly can also create safety hazards.

Before investing in a generator, think first about your electrical needs and usage. Know the difference between standby and portable generators:

  • Standby generators are wired directly into the home and can be sized to match the electrical demands of the home or building.A permanently installed standby generator must have an approved transfer safety switch to avoid feeding electricity back into the electrical system outdoors, creating what’s known as “backfeed.” Backfeed is dangerous for line workers as well as anyone who may be near downed power lines.
  • Portable generators do not permanently attach to the home, and can power only the appliances that are plugged into the generator, so consider essential electrical needs when choosing. To avoid backfeed into the utility electrical system, the portable generator should never be plugged directly into the home.

Before using a portable generator, read all manufacturer instructions.

Place the generator in an open, well-ventilated area away from the home or garage. Using your generator in a space that does not have adequate ventilation increases the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning (CO) from fumes. As an extra precaution, install CO detectors around the home and test them regularly. CO is odorless and colorless and can be deadly. Symptoms of CO poisoning include dizziness, nausea, and headaches. If you suspect a problem, seek fresh air immediately.

Before turning the generator on, make sure nothing is plugged in. Keep children and pets a safe distance from generators. After starting it, only plug appliances or those connected to heavy-duty extension cords directly into the generator. Never plug the generator into a wall outlet to avoid the risk of backfeed.

Carbon monoxide fumes are both colorless and odorless and may reach fatal levels within minutes if not detected. When turning off your generator, take the time to do so safely. Unplug all appliances before turning off the power of the generator. In order to keep your generator in working order, you’ll need to perform regular maintenance.

  Learn More

Staying Safe Until Power is Restored is Key

When a prolonged power outage occurs during hot weather, take steps to maintain safety and comfort until power is restored.

It’s important to stay clear of downed power lines at all times, even during cleanup efforts. Be alert to the possibility that tree limbs or debris may hide an electrical hazard.

Assume that any dangling wires you encounter are electrical and treat all downed or hanging lines as if they are energized and dangerous. If you are driving and come upon a downed power line, stay in your vehicle, warn others to stay away and contact emergency personnel or your electric utility. Also when driving, be careful at intersections where traffic lights may be out.

If power to your home is out for a prolonged period, know and understand important safety precautions and steps to cope with heat until power is restored:

  • Dress in loose, lightweight clothing and stay on the coolest, lowest level of your home.
  • Use natural ventilation to cool homes, and consider purchasing battery-powered fans.
  • Drink plenty of water and avoid heavy meals, caffeinated drinks and alcohol.
  • Keep refrigerator or freezer doors closed. A freezer that is half full or full can keep foods frozen 24 to 48 hours. Foods can stay safe in an unopened refrigerator up to four hours. If an outage lasts longer than four hours, remove and pack meat, milk and other dairy products in a cooler with ice.
  • Use safe alternative food preparations. A barbecue grill is an excellent way to prepare food. Always grill outside.
  • Check on friends and relatives—especially children, seniors, and those with medical conditions or disabilities. These people may need to seek emergency cooling shelters.
  • Keep a first-aid kit in your home and one in your car. Make sure that it includes scissors, tweezers, safety pins, aspirin, eyewash and rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide.
  • Close all drapes and blinds on the sunny side of your residence.
    • Take your family and pets to a basement or other cool location if you have one. Also consider going to an air-conditioned public place during warmer daytime hours.


We have a number of tips at our Outage Center on what to do during a power outage:   Outage Center

We also share information from the CDC on outage safety:   cdc.gov

Power Line Safety

Assume that any dangling wires you encounter are electrical and treat all downed or hanging lines as if they are energized and dangerous. Residents should not attempt to clear trees or other debris from power lines and all lines should be treated as live even in areas where power is out. Keep distance over 10 feet away as electricity can jump.

When using ladders and other equipment outdoors be sure to look up first.

If you are driving and come upon a downed power line, stay in your vehicle, warn others to stay away and contact emergency personnel or your electric utility.

When driving, be careful at intersections where traffic lights may be out and treat nonfunctioning or flashing lights as a stop sign.

 Health Services

American Red Cross 1-800-733-2767

If you or a family member’s health has been impacted by outages or the storm, contact this number 217-787-7602.

Help For Seniors:

AgeLinc: (217) 787-9234 (Office) or (800) 252-2918 (Toll Free)

The Senior Services Center of Central Illinois: (217) 528-4035 or (217) 528-3882.
Senior Service Center announced that individuals with CPAP and other specialized breathing equipment may come to their facilities for charging or use of their adapter plug-ins at their facility.

 Food, Water and Shelter

SNAP Benefit Replacement

The Illinois Department of Human Services may be able to replace Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits due to the recent storm damage Food may be replaced due to a power outage of at least 4 hours. The food cannot be replaced if the loss of power was due to nonpayment of utility service; or when food was destroyed because of a mechanical problem, such as a refrigerator breakdown.
For more information regarding SNAP replacement please contact/visit https://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?module=12&officetype=&county= to find your local Illinois Department of Human Services Family Community Resource Center.

The BOS Center

Citizens without power can find air conditioning, charge their devices, shower and get food at the BOS Center in downtown Springfield. The shelter is will remain open around the clock with 24 hour police security on the premises. The service will remain available as long as necessary for the community.
Seating, tables and cots with established separate areas for men, women and families will be available. Refrigeration for medication is also available at the facility. Disaster Mental Health professionals and general health care staff are also available for those in need.

Warm food service will begin July 5th with a schedule of:
12:00 pm-Box Lunch Service
5:00 pm- Warm Dinner Service

Any restaurants that would like to donate food to citizens utilizing the BOS Center, can email haley.wilson@springfield.il.us.

The YMCAs of Springfield

In response to the ongoing power outage from recent storms, the two Springfield YMCA locations are offering resources to the community. The two Springfield YMCA locations are offering space to the public to cool off, recharge phones and electronics, and access the internet.

The YMCA schedule and locations are:


  • Wednesday, July 5, 6 p.m. -8 p.m. at Downtown Y and Kerasotes
  • Thursday, July 6, 6 p.m.-8 p.m. at Downtown and Kerasotes YMCAs
  • Friday, July 7, 6 p.m.-8 p.m. at Downtown and Kerasotes YMCAs
  • Saturday, July 8, 7 a.m.-4 p.m. at Downtown and Kerasotes YMCAs
  • Sunday, July 9, Kerasotes YMCA 8 a.m.-Noon; Downtown YMCA 1 p.m.-4 p.m.

Free produce boxes will be available Wednesday and Saturday at the Downtown Y courtesy of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois.

The YMCA is also looking for volunteers to assist the public at these centers and donations of water, snacks, non-perishables, and personal items from area business to distribute to the public.

Cooling Centers

Cooling centers throughout Springfield are operating and have power. Here is a list of operating cooling centers in Springfield:
  Cooling Centers

Dumpster Services for Spoiled Food

Republic Services is providing dumpsters to dispose of spoiled food (only) at 600 Rickard Rd and 2121 S. 11th St.

Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief Team Providing Disaster Relief to Residents

The Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief Team is offering disaster relief services to residents of the city and surrounding areas. They will primarily help clear areas on private property to assist those in need. They will prioritize their work based on hazards, elderly, inability to move vehicles, etc.

The team will arrive in Chatham, Illinois at Chatham Baptist Church on Wednesday, July 5th, to start accessing the area. The saw teams will arrive on Thursday, July 6th, to begin work.

Anyone that has a need for their assistance should email   IBDRdirector@gmail.com and include their name, address, phone number and a brief description of help needed.

Illinois Baptist State Association (Southern Baptist) and The American Baptist Men (Great Rivers Region) providing Assistance

Call for debris removal assistance no cost for Sangamon County Residents. Hotline number is: 217-341-2416.

  CWLP Information

As circuits are restored work is beginning on more of the lateral line outages or backyard outages that are in smaller pockets around the City. There are over 2,400 work tickets that have been entered for widespread damage across the entire span of the CWLP electric system.

In the Monday, July 3rd Electric Operations assessment, CWLP personnel are estimating three phases of restoration for the remaining 10,000 customers:

  • 3,000 or 30% restored by end of Tuesday (7,000 out)
  • 3,500 or 65 % restored by end of Friday (6,500 out)
  • 2,500 or 90% restored by end of Sunday (1,000 out)

In addition to CWLP’s line crews, troubleshooters, substation and relay crews, it’s continued to be all hands on deck for power restoration efforts. Line crews, substation, relay and communications crews are working 17-hour shifts and troubleshooter coverage remains 24 hours a day for this phase of power restoration work. Asplundh line construction crews and other crews from utilities in South Bend, Indiana are assisting CWLP. Crews from New Jersey are also being tasked to assist. Additional staff have been added to the CWLP Electric Dispatch office to assist in outage response beginning Thursday.


When widespread storm damage causes power outages, utilities use contractors and mutual aid agreements to bring in crew resources to help restore service as quickly and safely as possible. CWLP Crews and others from Ameren Illinois, Asplundh, City of Batavia, Bryan Municipal Utilities Ohio, Carthage Water & Electric, Chillicothe Municipal Utilities, City of Bowling Green, OH, Columbia Water & Light, L.E. Myers Co., MPUA RSC, Piqua Ohio, Rolla Municipal Utilities, Nixa Utilities, Westerville, and Ohio are all involved in outage response for the City of Springfield. In total there are more than 210 trucks and over 250 personnel in the field for the response to the June 29 derecho and storms.

CWLP Power Outage Restoration Status & Information

CWLP has information on its Outage Center page to help customers track outages, learn about restoration times and find assistance. Large outage areas and locations where CWLP is assessing, investigating and clearing for outage repairs are listed at CWLP.com. It’s one-click to Outage Center or Power Out.   Outage Center More updates are also shared on the utility’s  Facebook page and on its  Twitter account.


More About Power Outage Response

After severe weather, CWLP takes specific steps to restore power. Utility supervisors assess damage and determine what crews, equipment and supplies will be needed to make repairs.

The first repair priorities beyond those immediately critical to public safety, are transmission lines, high-voltage lines that deliver electricity from power plants to substations. Although protected by wide rights of way, these lines can be damaged by trees. Without these lines, power cannot be delivered to customers.

Also vital to restoration efforts are distribution circuits. These 12.5 kilovolt (Kv) circuits deliver power to all business and residential customers. Transformers, which are devices that convert electric current to various voltages, then reduce the 12.5 Kv circuits to more usable voltages like 120-240, 208 and 480 volts at or near the customer’s location.

The wires that carry the customer’s load are called service lines. Typically after repairs are made on transmission lines and distribution circuits, CWLP crews are mobilized to get all service lines back in service. This strategy makes the best use of personnel and equipment.

Once transmission lines, substations and distribution circuits can again deliver power, CWLP assigns priority to lines that serve hospitals, police departments, emergency services and other facilities that are essential to public health and safety.

Other restoration work is prioritized by repairs that affect the largest number of customers. For example, a repair serving 200 customers is done before a repair serving five customers. This is the quickest way to restore power to the most customers.

  Learn More

  What Repairs Are Your Responsibility?





During storms there are times when your overhead electrical service line could be damaged and would be in need of repair in order for your power to be restored. Since customers do not routinely have work done on their electrical service it is important to know what repairs are customer responsibility vs. those of the utility in order for power to be restored quickly and safely. In the image shown, the green indicates equipment if damaged, which would be the customer’s responsibility to have repaired.

If your overhead electrical service line connected to your house is damaged It is not uncommon for the socket, conduit mast, weatherhead for your meter to be pulled off the house and also damaged.

New Temporary Policy Due to June 29 Derecho and Storms

For Residential Customers Only: Electrical Contractors licensed by the City of Springfield may get a meter lock key from CWLP (by application and deposit). If your overhead electrical service line connected to your house is damaged It is not uncommon for the socket, conduit mast, weatherhead for your meter to be pulled off the house and also damaged.
Need Assistance? The Office of Planning and Economic Development is able to help residents and small businesses with repair costs not covered by insurance for damage on the customer-owned portion of your electric service. This includes the meter socket, service panel, conductor, weatherhead as attached to your property as shown in green. Please call 217-789-2377 and an inspector can come out.

City of Springfield

Address: 800 East Monroe, Springfield, IL 62701
Phone: 217.789.2000
Fax: 217.789.2109
General Office Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm

Click here for Department Contacts

Quick Links


Stay Connected