Kentucky Power Ice Storm Response
Saturday, February 13, 10 a.m.
***Weather Alert***
Reports of icy roads, including black ice, are coming into Kentucky Power’s command center. These conditions will make travel for line crews more challenging and will of course slow travel to ensure safety. Everyone is urged to use extreme caution.
Further, the forecast for the next several days is calling for another winter storm bringing additional ice, rain and wind to the Kentucky Power service territory. Kentucky Power is monitoring this situation closely and making preparations to address additional outages should they occur. Customers are encouraged to make plans also. Prepare an emergency outage kit, ensure loved ones who may need extra help have a place to go should they lose power and have a plan for your own household.
Situation
An ice storm moved through eastern Kentucky Wednesday night – Thursday morning wreaking havoc on electrical facilities, causing power outages for thousands of Kentucky Power customers.
Current Outages
Outages peaked late Thursday morning with nearly 25,000 customers out of power. Since that time or within 48 hours, more than 45% of customers who lost power have been restored. Currently, there are approximately 13,600 customers without power.
Approximate customer count in counties most affected include: Boyd-7,100; Carter-3,050; Greenup-1,150; Lawrence-1,400 and Rowan-900.
Storm response efforts and restoration estimates
The outage restoration process prioritizes repairs so that 1) essential services, plus 2) circuits affecting the most customers are addressed first. While crews continue to work throughout the territory, the areas of focus/high priority areas for Saturday are:
Boyd Co: Shopes Creek, Hall Ridge, 168/ Hurricane Road, Boy Scout Road, Rt. 3 South to Bolts Fork, Williams Creek, Bayless Hill, Straight Creek, Burnaugh area
Carter Co: US 60 W towards Star and Cribs Hill, Canoe Run to Stenson Creek areas, Hurricane Hollow, EK Road, Johns Run, Rt 1 towards Willard, Grahn area
Greenup Co: Russell/Kenwood, Bellefonte area, Country Club Drive area, Lloyd area and 503
Lawrence Co: Fallsburg area, Mattie area, Yatesville area
Rowan Co: Big Perry/Cranston Road
Additionally, ice caused significant damage to multiple large, high voltage transmission lines and those repairs are expected to be wrapped up this morning. Transmission lines deliver electricity to substations which power local circuits. From there, crews are able to make additional repairs and energize smaller circuits feeding homes and businesses.
Around 800 people are in the field working on approximately 500 places where repairs are needed.
It is estimated that 95% of customers will be restored by Monday night, meaning that many customers will be restored much sooner.
Safety Message
Stay away from all downed lines or sparking equipment, and keep children and pets away from fallen lines and anything the lines may touch.
For everyone’s health and safety with the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, please do not approach power company personnel in the field.
For More Information
Customers can report outages and check the latest restoration information for their account anytime at kentuckypower.com/outages or by downloading the Kentucky Power mobile app at kentuckypower.com/app. The outage map is updated every 15 minutes. Restoration information is added when known. Click on “View Outage Map” to access the map on a computer, cell phone, or tablet. Customers can report outages online, on their mobile device or to our Customer Operations Center at 1-800-572-1113.
Customers also can get specific information about outages via text message and/or email by subscribing to Kentucky Power outage alerts. To sign up, please visitwww.kentuckypower.com/alerts. Information also is posted on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/KentuckyPower and on Twitter at twitter.com/KentuckyPower or @KentuckyPower.
Next Update:
Saturday, February 12, 6 p.m.
FYI, Ky Power used to cut right aways and trees close to lines as part of their maintenance. That’s all in the past. They still have contractors do this but not nearly as much. On top of that they usually ask for an increase for this purpose. This increase never goes away. They will continue to ask for more. None of the increases go away. Take it from some who knows.