Nearly 2,000 customers were affected by an electric outage that was reported just before 9 p.m. Wednesday night, according to a news release from the city of Ames.

“A storm system moving through the area brought high winds causing many tree limbs to fall into power lines. Lightning strikes created more outages. High winds broke a transmission pole on the Des Moines tie-line, which is one source of power into the city,” according to the release.

Power was restored to half of the customers by 2 a.m. Thursday morning and as of 6 a.m., only about 200 remained. The remaining customers were expected to have electricity restored early Thursday morning. All electric services were dispatched overnight to repair the systems and outage calls are still being received today.

Drop off sites have been designated for tree limbs and other debris that resulted from last night’s severe weather and strong winds.

According to the news release, “City of Ames crews will continue to clear tree limbs from the public right of way (typically the area between the sidewalk and the street). To assist residents, the city has opened a drop-off site for tree limbs, branches and vegetative debris from private property at the Parks and Recreation Maintenance Facility at 700 E. 13th St. The site will be marked with a sign and open daylight hours through Sunday, Aug. 5. There will not be a curbside pickup for tree limbs.

“Residents should contact their private garbage hauler for non-tree limb debris from the storm. To report tree limb damage on public property, contact the Public Works Department at 515-239-5160.”