Alliant Continues Work to Brighten Dark Neighborhoods

As hopefully most homes and businesses in Cedar Rapids have their power restored from the August 10 derecho by now, there will likely continue to be ongoing temporary outages as Alliant Energy works on more permanent fixes. Beyond that, the company now tells KCRG, it's turned to restoring street lights in the area, many of which are still dark.

Alliant says they began working on this process at the end of October. Many streetlights have had to be replaced, some just repaired. It won't take the combined effort of city crews and those brought in from outside areas like the initial power restoration did, but crews are working in every quadrant of Cedar Rapids and in Marion, Hiawatha, and Robins.

As you might expect, they are hearing from concerned residents wondering when they will see the light in their neighborhood. Alliant can currently provide no timeline. Part of it has to do with the derecho debris pickup process. With some streetlights sitting atop piles of debris, that had to be safely removed before repair work could begin on the streetlights.

Meanwhile, KCRG says residents in Wellington Heights, as in likely many other neighborhoods, are banding together to look out for each other until their neighborhood becomes brighter and safer. They've decided to collectively turn on their porch lights for each other's protection. That's usually one good that comes out of a natural disaster. Residents are impatient but understanding that it's all just part of the recovery process.

Then again, holiday lights might be doing the job these days. Send us your Christmas light display as we "Light Up The Corridor" and give you a chance to win $1,000. Just download and open our mobile app or fill out the form here.