Kentucky crews working to restore power after strong winds cause over 5K outages statewide

“Just super strong wind gusts, 50 to 60 miles per hour,” said Joe Arnold with Kentucky Electric Cooperatives. “And that brings down trees and brings down tree limbs.”

Southern Kentucky was hit especially hard, with some power outages reported as early as Tuesday.

“We were prepared, and we are well-girded for the next battle as far as a major outage is concerned,” Arnold said. “But frankly, we’re like emergency responders as far as preparedness because it’s a daily preparation.”

As of 5 p.m. on Wednesday, there were around 5,500 customers in the state without power.

“Crews have been out all day, and I would expect those outages to be hopefully restored by sometime [Thursday],” added Arnold.

While most of those outages are being reported in the southeastern part of the state, other areas were hit too, with some Kentucky Utilities (KU) customers also without power.

“We’ve had about 2,000 customers impacted so far,” said Daniel Lowry with KU. “We restored many of those, but we have more outages that we expect throughout the day until tonight as these high winds keep coming through.”

As crews continue to work towards restoration, they’re also asking residents to do their part, like treating all downed lines as energized.

“It may be your instinct if you see a tree that’s down and maybe some lines that are nearby to clear those limbs,” Lowry added. “But if there are power lines in those limbs, then the trees or the limbs themselves can be energized, and so you want to stay away from those.”