Kentucky Power Windstorm Restoration Update
Sunday, April 2, 2023, 10:30 a.m.
Weather
A damaging windstorm made its way through Kentucky Power’s entire territory yesterday, finally moving out of the area around sunset. According to the National Weather Service, yesterday’s peak wind gusts for our territory reached 60-70 mph in areas such as Breathitt, Knott and Pike counties. Today’s weather is favorable and should aid in restoration.
Summary
Currently there are 11,500 customers remaining without power, with the majority in Pike (3,514)
Floyd (1,946) Martin (1,618) Perry (1,215) and Letcher (1,139) counties. At the peak of the windstorm, 21,126 customers were out of power. Crews were able to restore power to nearly 10,000 customers yesterday despite the persistent weather conditions.
Storm Response Efforts
Nearly 500 Kentucky Power personnel, business partners and external resources are responding.
As crews assessed damage and restored power throughout the day yesterday, they have found approximately 40 broken poles, 45 broken cross arms and hundreds of spans of wire down. Additional out of state crews will join the efforts today and tomorrow.
Because of the dangerous high winds our service territory experienced yesterday, crews were not able to have buckets in the air to work on restoration in many areas for large parts of the day. The favorable weather today will allow for bucket truck usage, which will benefit restoration efforts.
Outages and Estimated Restoration
Restoration is expected to take several days. Specific estimated restoration times will be available as soon as Kentucky Power assessors are able to fully determine the damage, materials and types of crews needed. Customers can receive specific information about outages by visiting the outage map. This can be found atwww.KentuckyPower.com/outages. More information about how to report outages and stay up-to-date on outages in your area can be found below.
Kentucky Power works to restore power using the most efficient means possible. First, crews address outage cases that affect hospitals, emergency services, public safety facilities, public buildings, emergency shelters and other public utilities. After that, crews address residential and business/commercial customers. Outages that affect higher numbers of customers without power are typically addressed before outages affecting fewer customers. The idea is to restore service to the greatest number of customers as quickly as possible. Consequently, outage cases that affect small groups or single customers are addressed later in the restoration effort.
For more information
- Customers can get specific information about the outages affecting their accounts via text message and/or email by subscribing to Kentucky Power outage alerts. To sign up, please visitwww.KentuckyPower.com/alerts.
- Customers can report outages and check out the latest restoration information for their account anytime by downloading the app, www.KentuckyPower.com/app.
- Customers can also report to our Customer Operations Center at 1-800-572-1113.
- Restoration Information also is posted on Facebook and on Twitter or @KentuckyPower.
Safety Messages
- Stay away from all downed power lines! Downed lines can carry an electric current that can cause serious or even fatal injuries. If you encounter a fallen wire, keep yourself and others away from it and anything it may be touching. Call 911 and Kentucky Power immediately at 1-800-572-1113 to report.
- Fallen trees are likely to occur. Be aware of the potential for trees and overhanging limbs to fall without warning. The previous rains have made the ground soggy which means trees can fall more easily, especially with the strong winds predicted.
- Additional safety tips are posted at www.KentuckyPower.com/safety.
Next update: Sunday, April 2, 2023, at 6:30 p.m.
