'I stayed hoping for those trucks to show up.' Residents without power eyeing the end

Steven Spearie, State Journal-Register
Updated ·4 min read
Jeremy Bault charges his cell phone in his car in the 2200 block of South Ninth Street on Wednesday, July 5, 2023. His home has been without power now for six days as a result of last Thursday's brief but intense storms.
Jeremy Bault charges his cell phone in his car in the 2200 block of South Ninth Street on Wednesday, July 5, 2023. His home has been without power now for six days as a result of last Thursday's brief but intense storms.

After six days without power, seeing City Water, Light and Power crews pull up in an alley near his house in the 2200 block of South Ninth Street Wednesday morning put a smile on Jeremy Bault's face.

"I stayed," Bault said, "hoping for those trucks to show up. I don't really have too many other places to go."

Bault was one of about 5,000 CWLP customers remaining waiting for his lights to come back on after they were knocked out from last Thursday's intense storms.

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Mayor Misty Buscher and CWLP leaders again Wednesday preached patience from the public over the widespread devastation that has earned comparisons to the 1978 Easter weekend ice storm.

"It's terrible to be without power for basically almost a week," admitted CWLP Chief Utility Engineer Doug Brown, addressing the city council Wednesday. "We're going to work tirelessly until we get everybody back on and we ask everyone to stay respectful (and) patient."

Over 130 additional personnel from around the country had joined CWLP in restoration efforts. Brown said more help was on the way.

Bault's neighbor, Lisa McRill, admitted the first few days were OK because she had financial reserves, but the last day or two has been "sucky on the struggle bus making sure (my three kids) are eating."

McRill has been off from her job at Prairie State Gaming since Friday, so she has been making runs for DoorDash.

As for her two sons and daughter, "they're bored, they're hot. I tell them to play outside. Read a book. Put together a puzzle, but it's the nighttime they have a hard time with. They can't sleep because they don't have air. It's super hot (in the house), probably around 90 (degrees)."

Bault agreed it is 90-plus easily in his house.

"I brush my teeth and I'm dripping with sweat, even with windows open," he said. "I don't have a generator or anything to keep life afloat. How do I feel? Like I need to invest in some better things to survive, for these rare occasions."

Not so hot, figuratively, is how Bault is dealing with the crisis mentally.

"It's been rough, especially with the heat. If it wasn't as hot, I don't think it would be as bad," he admitted. "The mental game has definitely seen some dark thoughts. It lets you know who's really there for you, friends and family. Sometimes, everybody else is dealing with the same thing you're dealing with, and you don't even know about it. My parents live on the west side, and they've not had power."

A part of a tree from Melissa Gonzalez's yard fell onto her fence and became entangled in overhead wires during last Thursday's intense storms that cut through Springfield. The tree and several branches cut by a tree service contracted by the city, Gonzalez said, are obstructing the sidewalk in the 1600 block of East Reynolds Street.
A part of a tree from Melissa Gonzalez's yard fell onto her fence and became entangled in overhead wires during last Thursday's intense storms that cut through Springfield. The tree and several branches cut by a tree service contracted by the city, Gonzalez said, are obstructing the sidewalk in the 1600 block of East Reynolds Street.

For Melissa Gonzalez in the 1600 block of East Reynolds Street the week-long power outage has posed safety issues.

Gonzalez has already filed one police report after someone tried to break into her vehicle and a neighbor's vehicle. Another neighbor's garage door was kicked in, she said.

"It's not safe over here at all. It's pitch black out," Gonzalez said.

A large tree in her back yard split and landed on her fence, obstructing the sidewalk. Gonzalez said the city sent a tree service and cut tree branches from wires. They did a couple of cuts,Gonzalez said, but left the branches also blocking the sidewalk.

"And I'm one block away from the city garage," she said.

Adding to her misery was having to empty a recently-filled deep freezer, Gonzalez said. It was 96 degrees in her house yesterday. A neighbor across the street let her run an extension cord so "I can at least have a fan and a TV," Gonzalez said.

"I'm very frustrated right now. You get no answers."

In Louisiana, Gonzalez was a certified FEMA worker, but here, "I've never seen anything managed like this," she claimed.

Whoops of relief bounced around Charles Stoneking's block on South Glenwood Avenue as power came back on early Wednesday afternoon.

Stoneking, 77, compared Thursday's derecho, with its straight-line winds, to two typhoons he endured while living on Okinawa while serving in the U.S. Air Force.

"The wind was so strong," Stoneking recalled one typhoon, "that (the water) was coming through my concrete block walls with two layers of paint. (Thursday) it was a straight flatline. That's the way typhoons are."

Stoneking admitted he had a generator, but he loaned it out some time ago to a friend in southern Illinois.

"I never heard anything really bad from the neighbors (about the power being out)," he said. "What do you do? It doesn't pay anybody not to be impatient. People don't realize what it takes to provide the power they use."

Hope, said Bault, eyeing the workers in his alley, was all he had.

"I know they've been busy," he said. "I know they've been all over town."

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Some Springfield IL residents still without electrical power