Eastern Kentucky goes dark after second winter storm. Residents left without basics.

Multiple counties from northeastern Kentucky to the southern edge of the state dealt with widespread electricity outages Tuesday, and some used police, firefighters and volunteers to get medicine and kerosene to residents as utility crews cleared downed trees to fix power lines.

Just after 4 p.m. Tuesday, there were about 131,000 customers without power in Kentucky, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks electricity disruptions.

Three utilities had the largest numbers of customers in the dark: 55,000 for Kentucky Power in northeastern Kentucky, which peaked at 58,000 outages, including 16,000 in Boyd County and more than 10,000 in Carter County; nearly 21,000 in the 15-county territory of Jackson Energy Cooperative, which is headquartered in Jackson County; and more than 16,000 in southern Kentucky RECC’s area around Lake Cumberland. Kentucky RECC’s total was down from 21,000 earlier in the day.

Power restoration was slow, according to multiple utility company spokespeople and county leaders.

Cindy Wiseman, Kentucky Power’s managing director of external affairs and customer services, said the utility company will spend the majority of Tuesday and Wednesday assessing the damage, which includes evaluating road conditions, downed trees and materials needed to restore power.

Wiseman said it’s difficult to restore power after back-to-back storms.

The utility’s goal was to have essential services — hospitals, fire departments and water pumps — back online Tuesday before moving on to other outages.

In the Ashland region, Wiseman said power to 4,000 customers was never restored after the first storm last week.

“We don’t want anyone to think we forgot about them,” Wiseman said.

Road conditions hampered repairs, Wiseman said. She said the brief break in winter storms Wednesday will help, but she did not expect full restoration for customers until Sunday. Another winter storm could complicate efforts when it moves through Kentucky Wednesday night and Thursday.

For the first storm, Kentucky Power brought in 800 crew members to respond to repairs and doubled it for the second storm. Wiseman said the company will bring in additional crew members for the third storm expected later this week.

Utilities face challenges restoring power in Eastern and southern Kentucky areas because of the hilly terrain and because trees blocked some roads, officials said.

“Access is a problem. Terrain is a problem,” said Lisa Baker, executive administrative assistant at Jackson Energy Cooperative.

It can also be more time-consuming to restore electricity in rural areas because customers are farther apart.

Baker said the outages started multiplying Monday afternoon as the weight of ice on trees caused them to crash down on power lines.

Tuesday morning, more than half the customers in Jackson County and nearly half in Rockcastle County were without power.

Jackson Energy had help on the way from utilities in Western Kentucky, which wasn’t hit by the ice storm, and other states. The cooperative planned to have crews work around the clock, but Baker said it wasn’t clear when electricity would be restored to all customers.

South Kentucky RECC said the slick roads and inclement weather had hindered efforts to restore power for about 25 percent of its membership.

Counties set up warming centers, need help removing trees

In Rockcastle County, where more than a third of homes and businesses didn’t have electricity by mid-afternoon Tuesday, Judge-Executive Howell Holbrook Jr. said the county had set up a warming station at the elementary school in Mount Vernon.

Jackson County Judge-Executive Shane Gabbard said the county opened a similar warming center at Tyner Elementary School, and as of mid-afternoon, 16 people were using it. National Guard troops were expected to be available beginning Wednesday to help transport people to the center.

The U.S. Forest Service sent workers to help cut trees blocking roads that isolated people in their homes.

“We’ve got all kinds of trees down,” said Jamie Strong, emergency manager for the county.

Firefighters, police and others had delivered critical supplies such as oxygen, kerosene and heaters to people. Gabbard made two oxygen deliveries himself.

“It’s been a sight,” Gabbard said. “We’re trying to manage the best we can.”

More than 60 percent of the county’s homes and businesses didn’t have electricity at 4:15 p.m.

The entire city of Grayson in Carter County was without power Tuesday, and as of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, there was limited improvement. About 88 percent of the county’s residents didn’t have electricity. Carter County Emergency Management Director Jeremy Rodgers said about 40 percent of the power outages were lingering from the previous storm.

Rodgers asked residents to stay indoors or move to a warming shelter if needed by calling 606-474-6911. The county is working to add more warming shelters.

Elliot County Judge-Executive Myron S. Lewis said in a Facebook post Tuesday morning that no one in the county was exempt from the impacts of Monday night’s storm; 99 percent didn’t have power as of 4 p.m. Tuesday. He asked residents with logging experience to help clear debris, church leaders and elected officials to check in on their neighbors and health care workers to lend assistance.

In a follow-up video message Tuesday afternoon, Lewis said good things were happening and help was on the way.

“National Guard is coming. Forestry Service is coming,” he said. “They’re going to help us cut these roads out. We still need you all to have some patience.”

More than 94 percent of Lawrence County was without power as of Tuesday afternoon. Tim Ellis, the county’s 911 director, said restoration has been slow because of dangerous conditions. Ellis said first responders were getting trapped by falling trees Monday night.

The county offered a warming shelter at the Lawrence County Community Center in Louisa, one of the few places in the county with power. Ellis recommended residents stay where they were if possible.

McCreary County Judge-Executive Jimmie W. Greene II said the county had made arrangements to transport some people for dialysis treatments Tuesday morning and to get oxygen to a couple of people.

“You can’t even drive,” Greene said of conditions in the county.

Sheriff Billy Collett said downed trees blocked many roads in Leslie County, and crews couldn’t work to cut them out of the way until the power company confirmed that the lines at each site were dead. The utility pulled crews out of the field late Monday because of hazardous conditions, so work was slowed, Collett said.

Power was out to more than a third of the customers in the county as of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Collett, who was putting tire chains on his truck Tuesday morning, was among those without electricity at his home.

Many people in the county have gas-powered generators. That will get people through for a while, Collett said.

In Martin County, utility crews worked Tuesday to restore electricity at the water plant on Turkey Road after losing power Monday night. Martin County Water District asked its customers to conserve water as much as possible.

This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 1:21 PM.