Thousands in Eastern Kentucky remain without power
A line of storms that rolled across Kentucky Friday afternoon left tens of thousands of people without power in Eastern Kentucky, and many of them remained without electricity Saturday.
As of about 1:30 p.m. Saturday, about 16,500 Kentucky electrical customers were still without electricity, the majority of whom were in Eastern Kentucky. Pike, Martin, Johnson and Floyd counties appeared to be especially hart-hit, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks electrical outages across the country.
The storms that hit Friday brought strong winds that downed trees, poles and wires, resulting in damage that will take a while to clean up, Kentucky Power said Saturday.
The company said Saturday morning that it will likely be early next week before a few areas get power restored. The company had 9,843 customers still without electricity and 514 outage cases as of about 1:45 p.m. Saturday, according to its outage map.
Kentucky Power said about 26,000 of its customers initially lost power because of the thunderstorms, which affected most of the counties in the company’s service area. As of 8 p.m. Friday, 17,685 customers remained without electricity, according to the Kentucky Power outage map.
The company said Pike, Martin, Johnson and Knott counties had the most outages, while a number of other counties had “clusters of outages.” The company had 559 outage cases as of 8:15 p.m. Friday.
Other electric companies with significant numbers of outages Friday included Kentucky Utilities with 6,320 customers out, Fleming-Mason Energy with 3,722 customers out, Big Sandy RECC with 3,424 and Grayson RECC with 2,768, as of 8:36 p.m., according PowerOutage.us.
“Kentucky Power employees and contractors are working to assess damage, make repairs and restore service. Crews from all of Kentucky Power’s districts are responding and additional resources will arrive in the territory early tomorrow, resulting in nearly 400 personnel working to address outages as quickly and safely as possible through the weekend,” the company said in a news release.
The company said hospitals and “essential facilities like grocery stores” would be the first to have electrical service restored, followed by “circuits with large numbers of customers.” After that, service to individual homes will be addressed, Kentucky Power said.
Kentucky Power reminded people to stay away from downed lines, never touch a downed line or anything that is in contact with it and keep children and pets away from those hazards as well.
Lexington thunderstorm leads to power outages, reports of downed trees
