DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa's large regulated utility companies continue working to restore power after roughly half a million customers suffered outages from Monday's severe storm.
MidAmerican Energy reported about 148,000 customers still without power as of early Wednesday morning, after reporting 250,000 outages shortly after the storm.
More than 70,000 customers in the metro Des Moines area were still without power, including 40,000 in the city of Des Moines. MidAmerican was also working to restore service to roughly 60,000 customers in the Davenport-Quad Cities area early Wednesday.
MidAmerican has received assistance from utility crews from several other states through a special sharing arrangement.
Alliant Energy is working to restore power to more than 180,000 Iowa customers as of early Wednesday, after initially reporting 250,000 outages. More than 42,000 customers in the Cedar Rapids area were still without power.
The Ames city operated power company reported more than 5,500 outages early Wednesday, after an initial count of roughly 27,000.
Monday's rare derecho thunderstorm packed straight line winds of up to 100 miles an hour, damaging structures and downing trees and power lines. At least one person was killed during the storm.