BLOOMINGTON - Even as utility crews worked to turn the power back on for thousands of Central Illinois houses, high winds and ice on power lines combined Sunday to thwart those efforts. | Winter officially arrives | Photo gallery | Submit your photos | Reader-submitted photos

"We are very concerned about the winds (Saturday night), the very cold temperatures and the ice that remain on the trees and lines," said Natalie Hemmer, spokeswoman for Ameren. The combination could knock power out to more homes.

As of 2:45 p.m. Sunday, about 600 Ameren customers were without power in McLean County, according to the company's Web site, and there were about 16,000 customers without power statewide, up from 12,000 around 11 a.m..

As of 2:20 p.m. Sunday, approximately 4,500 Corn Belt Energy co-operative members were without power due to high winds coupled with already ice-laden lines, the company said on its Web site. Recent outages included the Parkside, Towanda and Kappa substations. Putnam, Bureau, and LaSalle counties have members without power in the Northern Region.

Corn Belt crews were working to restore power along with crews from four neighboring cooperatives, who were called in to help.

Meteorologist Ed Schimon of the National Weather Service in Lincoln said high winds and ice-coated branches may cause more outages today than the first round of ice storms on Thursday.

"It's going to be a mess," he said.

In addition to the strong northwest winds potentially causing downed power lines and branches, dangerous wind chill levels are expected, said meteorologist Brad Churchill in Lincoln.

A wind chill advisory began at 3 a.m. and runs to 9 a.m. Monday. Northwest winds are expected to increase to about 30 mph, with gusts of 45 mph today combining with temperatures near zero to produce wind chills of 15 to 25 degrees below zero, Churchill said.

Wind chill levels can result in frost bite and could lead to hypothermia if precautions aren't taken. Those who have to venture outdoors are encouraged to wear hats and mittens.

Hemmer estimates 45,000 Ameren customers were without power after last week's ice storm; that number had fallen to about 8,400 by Saturday afternoon.

In some cases, customers had to hire an electrician to repair their connector, called the weatherhead, before Ameren crews could connect repaired wires.

Predictions of more power outages are not what Doug O'Neill of Decatur wanted to hear.

He and his JT Electric crew worked 19 hours straight restoring power to Ameren customers Friday, and he expected similar hours on Saturday.

O'Neill was getting pretty tired. "I'm ready to go home," he said after the crew repaired lines on Reinthaler Road in Bloomington about midday, making about 59 customers warm and happy. A Mercer Avenue neighborhood was next on the list, with another half dozen stops scheduled by the end of the day.

"We're chugging away," he said.

Don Taylor, spokesman for Corn Belt Energy, reported the last of its customers who had lost power got it back late Saturday afternoon. But he also anticipated that weather conditions could cause more problems overnight and today.

The colder temperatures today may keep 75-year-old William Fish of Hudson out of the trees, where he could be found Saturday.

He was up a ladder trimming branches about 35 feet off the ground. As an experienced Christmas tree farmer, he handled his chainsaw with easy.

"I do it when I need to," he said of working at that height.

Although the storm got him up a tree, he said, "It could have been worse. We didn't lose our power or anything."