Twelve Columbia Water & Light linemen headed east on Monday to help with power restoration efforts after the devastating effects of superstorm Sandy. Originally it was thought the linemen would be assisting in West Virginia but the linemen were reassigned to Cleveland, Ohio. They made it there at 2:00 p.m. today and are awaiting work assignments. According to the First Energy web site there are over 50,000 customers without power in Cleveland. It is unknown at this time how long the restoration efforts will take and how long the Columbia linemen will be needed. The Missouri Public Utility Alliance in Columbia coordinated the assistance project through a mutual aid program to help utilities during wide-spread outages.

NOTE:  The Missouri Public Utility Alliance can be reached at (573) 445-3279.