Coronavirus amplifies hardships as Eastern KY power outage leaves thousands in the dark
By the time William McCool, a retired coal miner in Letcher County, saw his electricity flicker back to life after a two-day long outage this week, his reserve of oxygen tanks was running dangerously low.
Without a generator, he had no way to call to have more tanks delivered.
McCool, who is 66 and suffers from black lung disease, said he thinks about extended outages often, like the one that left more than 62,000 homes and businesses without electricity in Eastern Kentucky at one point this week. He worries that one day he’ll run out of oxygen before the power comes back on.
“It’s hard on everybody, but if you’re disabled, it’s even harder,” he said. “If I hadn’t had kids and grandkids to help me I’d have been destroyed. If you didn’t have nobody, and I’m sure there are people who don’t, it’d be hard on ‘em.”
The widespread outages this week in Eastern Kentucky compounded hardships associated with the novel coronavirus, leaving people without heat, television, phone and internet service even as many were stuck at home to avoid crowds and possible exposure to the virus.
As of Thursday morning, about 15,000 customers were still without power, including 3,397 in Leslie County, 3,362 in Letcher County and 3,543 in Perry County, according to Kentucky Power, a division of American Electric Power.
The company said it could take days to restore power to some customers, though it said 95 percent of all customers should have electricity by Sunday evening.
The outages, combined with concerns about COVID-19, put many residents in an unfamiliar position, where elderly or disabled residents could not safely stay with their younger relatives who may have electricity.
Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines said many working-age residents were not able to help their elderly and disabled relatives as much as they would during an ordinary outage. In a region with a higher proportion of co-morbidities, including respiratory disease, social distancing is especially important, he said.
“We’ve got a lot of families whose in dire straits because they need power for oxygen, breathing treatments,” Stines said. “A lot of people’s hollers been blocked and they can’t have EMS get to them if they need it.”
“With the virus, too, and all this going on, there’s a lot of people who’ve got their hands full,” he said.
Kentucky Power had sent more than 1,100 workers to the region to restore power as of Wednesday evening. About 400 more will arrive Thursday.
‘Unbelievable wind’
Several people said the storm brought some of the strongest winds they had ever seen.
The National Weather Service recorded a 79 mph gust at Dorton, in Pike County, and several other gusts over 40 mph. Kentucky Power found that more than 220 power poles were broken.
The city hall building at Wheelwright, in Floyd County, had half of its roof blown off.
Perry County Judge-Executive Scott Alexander said the storm hit around 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Unlike many fast-moving storms, the high wind seemed to last for an hour, he said.
“It was unbelievable wind,” Alexander said.
He said 98 percent of the customers in the county did not have electricity early Monday.
The storm also knocked out water service to thousands of people because pump stations were not working. Wednesday morning, there were still 4,000 meters without water service.
Alexander said local officials had discussed opening warming stations because of the cold forecast for late Tuesday and early Wednesday, but didn’t want to risk bringing people together because of the coronavirus.
On Wednesday, with another cold night on the way, he was trying to help find generators for people.
Of the nearly 2,000 customers without power in Floyd County Wednesday morning, about 1,000 were also without water service, said Floyd County Judge-Executive Robert Williams.
Williams said the county is still working to rebuild from flooding in the northern part of the county earlier this spring, “then we’re having to deal with this (power outage) in the southern part of the county, and the COVID-19 on top of that.”
“It just feels like somebody’s got you down and they got their foot on your throat and they just don’t want to let you up,” he said.
Workers social distancing ‘the best they can’
While the pandemic didn’t prevent the utility from getting enough employees and contractors on the ground, it has had trouble finding places for them to stay.
Kentucky Power has set up temporary housing in schools when it needed to bring in hundreds of extra workers after a storm, but those are closed because of the coronavirus. They also have to be careful about putting workers in trucks together because there isn’t room for them to keep six feet apart.
Employees and contractors are doing social distancing “the best they can,” Barker said.
Barker said the storm damage was severe. Of the 165,000 customers in its 20-county region of Eastern Kentucky, more than 62,000 homes or businesses were out of power at the peak.
“Doing without power is a really difficult thing, especially during a situation like the coronavirus pandemic,” she said.
‘They’re gonna be struggling’
Bill Brock, a former miner for Blackjewel, the coal company that failed to pay hundreds of workers last year, sparking a protest to block a trainload of coal, said he had been using a battery-powered light on his mining helmet to get around the house.
He and his family hadn’t been able to cook, so his wife had been getting pizza from a convenience store. They were using car chargers to charge their cell phones, and he was worried about losing the food in their refrigerator and freezer.
“It’s made it real stressful, I’ll tell you that,” he said.
Jeremy Gibson and his twin brother Jason, who operate a company called Just Right Construction, had delivered kerosene heaters and generators to several people this week.
It’s been hard on people to have no heat, TV, phone or internet at the same time they’re dealing with the coronavirus, the brothers said.
“It’s just tough,” said Jason Gibson.
Many people are on fixed incomes and can’t afford generators, and with no electricity to power refrigerators and freezers, families are in danger of losing their food, he said.
“They’re gonna be struggling the next two weeks,” he said
‘I’m afraid to get the dadburn virus’
Wendele Riddle, of Wheelwright, said his power went out Sunday night and was still not on Wednesday afternoon. He worried he would lose about 14 packages of meat in his freezer.
Riddle had no heat, so he and his family drove about 40 minutes to the nearest motel and would stay there until the power came back.
Riddle’s mother, who has COPD and uses oxygen, was not able to use her tanks because they ran on electricity, he said. She had been using a handheld inhaler for two days, until Riddle’s neighbors came Wednesday with a generator.
Anthony Wooton, a retired coal miner who lives at Big Branch in Leslie County, filled up several gas cans Wednesday at the S&D Stop & Go in the community of Wooton to run his generator at home.
Wooton said he has been staying home because of the coronavirus, but was forced to come out Wednesday to get gas to power his generator to keep the house warm.
“I’m afraid to get the dadburn virus,” he said.
Like other public schools in Kentucky, the Leslie County schools have been closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, but had been providing meals to students who needed them.
The storm knocked out power to all the schools, so they weren’t able to provide meals on Monday and Tuesday, said Superintendent Brett Wilson.
Laurel Grocery provided a refrigerated truck so the schools wouldn’t lose food that had to be kept cold.
Wilson said he contacted Big Creek Missions, an evangelical Christian ministry in the county, on Monday and it stepped up food production to help fill the gap.
Director Kevin Rogers said the mission was able to rent a generator and provided about 4,000 meals to families in Leslie and Clay counties this week.
Wilson said electricity came back on at three of the county’s five schools Wednesday, so they will be able to resume providing meals Thursday.
Cooks who still don’t have electricity at home came in early Thursday to make food for kids, Wilson said.
The storm and lack of electricity, he said, “has been an ordeal on top of everything else.”
This story was originally published April 16, 2020 at 11:58 AM.
