Second Ky. death attributed to cold weather; Some will be without electricity through end of week
Nearly 20,000 Kentucky Power customers in Eastern Kentucky still don’t have electricity, and it will likely be another week or even longer before some of them have their power restored, the company said.
Some people have already gone more than a week without electricity, and two deaths in Boyd County have been attributed to the cold weather.
The most recent death was Thursday, when an 86-year-old Ashland woman died after spending three to four days in her home without electricity, said Boyd County coroner Mark Hammond. He said the woman’s family had come get her to take her to a warmer location on Thursday, and her heart went into arrhythmia. Paramedics took her to Kings Daughters Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Another woman, 77, was found dead in an apartment in Boyd County Wednesday afternoon, and Hammond said her death was likely a result of hypothermia. He said she had been without heat or electricity for two days, and maintenance workers who went to check on her found her dead.
Hammond said he is very concerned about the possibility of more incidents like those.
He said the southern part of Boyd County has poor cell phone service, and many land lines have been brought down by the winter storms that dumped inches of ice and snow, making communication and travel difficult or impossible for residents.
“People are running out of fuel,” Hammond said.
“It honestly is like a war zone with trees” down, he said. “We’ve never really dealt with it this bad.”
As of Friday night, there were 41,520 outages in Kentucky, according to Poweroutage.us, which tracks electrical outages across the country. As of Monday, that number had been cut to 21,000
Of the counties served by Kentucky Power, Boyd, Carter and Lawrence counties were among the hardest hit, the company said.
“The magnitude of damage in this area is proving to be unprecedented and total reconstruction of destroyed circuits is necessary,” Kentucky Power said in an update on its website Friday night. “Low ceiling levels have not allowed for helicopters to fly for aerial damage assessment, which is still needed due to the miles of damage on electrical circuits.”
In an update Saturday, Kentucky Power said helicopters were finally able to fly. The company said it is prioritizing people who have been without power since the first storm.
“In most of these original outage cases, the repair work is very difficult, time-consuming and only affecting a few customers on each outage,” Kentucky Power said Saturday, “but numerous resources are devoted to these customers every day, including strike teams made up of workers with specific and broad skills in order to quickly and safely restore smaller outages without waiting for additional assistance.
As more assessment is possible and the company learns more about the damage left by the storm, Kentucky Power said outage cases are increasing.
As of Saturday, the company said there were “more than 1,000 individual places crews need to address. As trees weakened by rounds of heavy ice and snow continue to fall, we also expect additional outages to occur moving forward.
“We are shifting crews today from the areas that have wrapped up restoration to these hardest hit areas. As just one example of the restoration projects underway, a 118 person restoration team is moving to Lawrence County to work on a large circuit serving hundreds of customers. This is a circuit that has numerous broken poles and downed spans of wire that will take several days to complete.”
Boyd County had 8,770 customers with no electricity as of Saturday morning. Kentucky Power said most customers in Ashland would have their power back by Monday night. Of those remaining without power in Boyd County, the company said it expects 50 percent to have power restored by Wednesday and 75 percent by Friday night.
Lawrence County had 5,000 without electricity Saturday. The company said half of them should have power by Wednesday, and 75 percent by Friday night.
In Carter County there were 3,118 without power Saturday morning. Kentucky Power said most of those living in Grayson should have power restored by Monday night. Of those remaining without power in Carter County, the company said it expects 50 percent to have power restored by Wednesday and 75 percent by next Friday night.
The company said most of the 1,496 customers without electricity in Magoffin County should have it back on by Saturday night.
Most of the 700 customers without power in Greenup County should have theirs back by Monday night, Kentucky Power said.
The company said most customers in Paintsville, West Liberty and Rowan County should have their power restored by Sunday evening.
“Keep in mind, each day thousands of customers will see power restored, meaning many more will receive power before the stated estimated date,” the company said Friday night.
Kentucky Power said “more than 2,000 line employees, foresters and assessors” are working to get the power back on.
At the peak of the outages, Kentucky Power said 59,204 of its customers were without electricity, and more than two-thirds of them have had it restored.
This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 10:14 PM.
