DECATUR - Electrical contractors are finding themselves on the coattails of Ameren Corp. workers busy restoring power.

Bodine Electrical owns Electrical Service Co., handling electrical work for homes, schools and light commercial.

The company has been snowed under with more than 150 calls in the last couple of days.

"Ameren has granted the company permission to disconnect power besides doing repairs, which is good news for residents," said Blair Dial, marketing director for Bodine Electrical.

She said this takes some of the stress off Ameren in trying to get power restored to homes. Most electricians are not allowed to disconnect the electricity to homes.

After repairs have been made, Ameren must then reconnect the power to the home.

"Any electrical cable or wire that is attached to the home or pole is Ameren's responsibility - anything from that attachment point on down is the residents responsibility to have fixed, including meter boxes, conduit and the metal pipe," Dial said.

Electrical Service Co. does have standby outside generators for sale that run on natural gas. The generator systems automatically kick on when the power goes out and shut off when power is restored. For more information, call 429-6868.

For other private electricians, there wasn't much they could do until Ameren disconnected the power at homes.

That was the case with TA Brinkoetter & Sons Inc., which has been receiving calls from homeowners to replace meter bases and weather heads.

"If a tree falls on a wire, the pipe or conduit attached to the house pulls out of the meter or bends," said David Brinkoetter, president, who had to wait for supply companies to provide him with materials. "It's been a huge disaster for all of Decatur."

He also noted that the plumbing division of his company is expected to be extremely busy over the next few weeks as power is restored to homes with frozen pipes.

Sheila Smith can be reached at sheilas@herald-review.com or 421-7963.