Updated: Icy roads, outages persist after winter storm in Central and Eastern Kentucky
After a two-day winter storm left the state, the aftereffects continued Friday for some Kentucky residents, and meteorologists said more precipitation is on the way.
Ice storm warnings were over. But parts of Eastern Kentucky remained under a winter weather advisory, and a new winter storm watch had been issued for Central Kentucky from Sunday evening through Tuesday afternoon. Power outages were still significantly affecting parts of Eastern Kentucky Friday afternoon.
Just before 5 p.m., there were more than 32,000 reported power outages in Kentucky affecting more than a dozen counties, , according to PowerOutage.us.
Kentucky Power, which has about 160,000 customers in Eastern Kentucky, said about 18,000 customers remained without power late Friday afternoon. The area near Ashland had been hit particularly hard by the storm.
Crews restored power Thursday to about 5,000 customers, but new outages occurred overnight that left 970 customers in the dark.
New disruptions in power might be a common occurrence over the coming days.
Kentucky Utilities spokesman Daniel Lowry said ice can weigh tree limbs down and cause them to come into contact with power lines, then when the ice melts and the limb retracts, it can hit the line again.
“We kind of get it coming and going, so to speak,” Lowry said.
Customers may also experience a “flicker” if a tree briefly touches a power line, Lowry said. The flicker is caused when a limb strikes a line and activates a safety mechanism that will de-energize a line for a moment and then come back on when the tree is free.
Boyd County had the most outages late Friday afternoon, affecting more than 8,900 customers. Thousands of customers in Carter, Greenup, Rowan and Lawrence counties also were without electricity.
Crews spent a good bit of time clearing downed trees to get access to spots that needed repairs.
Kentucky Power brought in hundreds of additional workers to restore service.
Many customers should see lights and heat come back by Saturday, but it could take until Monday evening to restore power to 95 percent of all customers without service, the utility company said in a news release.
In Lexington, streets and roads crews worked overnight to treat roads, but officials warned drivers to be aware of icy spots.
“Drivers should remember that bridges, ramps and parking lots can be slick when other areas are not,” said Amy Wallot, a spokesperson for the city. “Drivers are reminded to allow extra time for stopping and to keep a safe distance between other cars to avoid possible collisions.”
Traffic accidents were less frequent Thursday night into Friday morning. Lexington police responded to 23 non-injury collisions and 3 injury crashes between 5 a.m. and noon Friday, according to the city.
At least one fallen tree was reported Friday morning in Lexington on Old Richmond Road, leaving one lane temporarily blocked, according to the Lexington Traffic Management Center.
More winter weather could also be on its way, WKYT-TV Chief Meteorologist Chris Bailey wrote on Friday. Heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain could begin to impact Central Kentucky as early as Sunday night, while Eastern Kentucky could face an ice storm.
“Let’s cut straight to the point here, with ice still on trees and power lines and some people likely to still be without electric, this has the potential to become a serious situation,” Bailey wrote. “Areas getting in on heavy freezing rain could have major issues with power outages.”
Kentucky was expected to get light freezing rain east of Interstate 65 Friday night into Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
In Central Kentucky, the weather service said, “moderate to heavy mixed precipitation” is expected from Sunday evening through Tuesday afternoon, with up to four inches or more of snow possible.
The weather service also predicted that “ice accumulations exceeding a tenth of an inch over portions of the area.”
Herald-Leader reporter Karla Ward contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 7:20 AM.