ALTON - Alton Deputy Police Chief Jarrett Ford said Alton was hit hard in the Wednesday severe thunderstorm that plowed through the city around 5 p.m.

Deputy Chief Ford said he fielded reports of power lines down behind Halpin's in Alton and a variety of trees down in the city. He also said a tree fell on a power line on East 12th Street. Riverbender.com has photos of trees down on 4th Street.

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Ford added that water had collected on some of the streets, especially in the Milton area, but traffic was still flowing. Traffic lights were out on Homer Adams Parkway and in various other Alton locations, Ford said.

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Ameren Ilinois spokesperson Brian Bretsch presented the good news first and said the areas of Brighton and Bunker Hill had about 1,600 customers out for 25 minutes after a breaker inside a substation tripped, but they were able to close it and those customers were back on.

Bretsch said the Alton power outages started around 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Bretsch added: "The outage that is impacting the 2,000 customers around Alton (Alton (1,700) Cottage Hills (50) and Godfrey (235). It appears we might be able to re-route some of the customers to restore their power. A tree trimming crew is being dispatched."

East Alton had about 930 without power and there were an estimated 70 in Wood River. Storms that started at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday knocked about 1,750 customers out of power in Jerseyville, Carrollton, and Chesterfield, Bretsch said.

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