Power outage closes IVCC and LPHS

Power outages were causing problems in La Salle and Oglesby Wednesday morning.  The outages started just before 9:30am as workers with Ameren were switching operations back to normal at the La Salle substation.  Leigh Morris with Ameren says as they were doing that a circuit breaker opened and caused the outage.

Homes and businesses in Oglesby and La Salle were affected.

So was Flint Hills Resources in Peru.  Plant spokesman Jake Reint says the plant experienced a power surge and then an outage.  He says that caused one of the processing units shut down and discharged styrene into a containment area.  He says they didn’t believe there was a risk to the public.  As of noon, the plant was still down.

The power outage and odor of the styrene caused LP High School and Jackson School preschool to be cancelled for the rest of the day.

Illinois Valley Community College also cancelled the rest of the day and night classes at the Oglesby campus due to the power outage.  The Ottawa Center remained open.