Squirrel caused Lexington power outage, KU says. Electricity restored
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A power outage began around 7:22 a.m. affecting northern Lexington customers.
- LG&E & KU reported 607 customers without power as of 8:15 a.m.
- Multiple stop lights along New Circle Road and Russell Cave Road are dark.
Crews have restored power to hundreds of customers who were impacted by a Thursday morning outage, according to LG&E & KU.
The outage started around 7:22 a.m. in the area along Russell Cave Road to the southwest of New Circle Road and the northwest of North Broadway. LG&E & KU spokesperson Liz Pratt said the outage initially left approximately 2,000 customers without power.
Crews were able to restore power for approximately 1,400 customers within minutes and completely fix the outage around 8:40 a.m., according to Pratt. The electric company initially estimated power wouldn’t be restored until 10 a.m.
A squirrel caused “an impact to our system at our substation,” resulting in the outage, Pratt said.
The outage turned off multiple stop lights in the area. The Lexington Traffic Management said stop lights along New Circle Road were dark at Boardwalk, Russell Cave Road, Broadway and Old Paris Road.
The stop light at Loudon Avenue and Russell Cave Road was also dark. The traffic management center said drivers should treat a dark stop light as a four-way stop.
This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 8:21 AM.
