ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOX) — Have you been turning up the heat this week?
The natural gas company Spire reports a 70-percent increase in demand on Wednesday — when temperatures fell below zero — compared to the same day a year ago. Spire says it has had no disruptions caused by the high demand.
Meanwhile, Ameren Missouri reports electrical demand was up ten-percent on Monday and Tuesday, and spiked 39 percent on Wednesday. Ameren Missouri says there have been no power outages linked to high demand in the area, even though around 6,000 people in the Murphy and High Ridge area of Jefferson County were without power after a mouse tried to escape the cold and got into a substation.
It's also been a brutal week for cars and the people that have to jump them. Mike Right with the Auto Club of Missouri says calls for service have doubled this week, the highest call volume in decades.
"In the St. Louis area, we've been rescuing about 3,000 (people). The really bad day was Wednesday."
Right says the most common problem has been cars not starting, and he estimates around 10,000 car batteries have died this week here.