BENTON – Power has been restored to the affected areas of Franklin County that lost power Monday night.

According to Franklin County Emergency Management Director Ryan Buckingham, the outage lasted around two hours and was caused due to equipment damage at the Benton Substation. Ameren officials were able to narrow down the cause and make necessary repairs. Ameren says the power outage began at 9:50 p.m. Power was restored at 11:40 p.m.

The outage affected the Benton, Hanaford, West City, Whittington, Sesser and Christopher areas.

Buckingham says an estimated 5,700 customers were without power for the duration of the outage.

Buckingham thanks Ameren for their quick response and coordination with his office during the incident.