Utility lineman working to restore power in Mayfield falls, breaks leg
A utility lineman working with a crew of others in Mayfield to restore power after the deadly Dec. 10 tornado fell and broke his leg Sunday morning.
Just after 9 a.m. Sunday, a worker was “seriously injured when he fell of a utility pole, and the pole fell on top of him,” the Graves County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook.
The man, working with a crew from the Knoxville, Tennessee area, suffered several breaks in his leg. He was flown to a Nashville hospital for surgery, police said, and his family was notified.
Last weekend’s storms across Western Kentucky killed at least 78 people, including 21 in Graves County. Hundreds more were displaced and thousands lost power. Beshear said Saturday that 944 people were being housed by the state after their homes were affected by the tornadoes. The devastation from the tornadoes has led to more than 10,000 insurance claims being filed, according to Beshear’s office.
To restore that lost power — there were still 684 outages Monday morning, according to poweroutage.us — utility workers had to in many cases re-build entire power lines, including digging holes and re-setting poles, Kentucky Emergency Management Director Michael Dossett has said.
“These folks have a very dangerous job, but many times we forget that,” the Graves County Sheriff’s Department wrote on social media. “We will never be able to thank them enough for what they are doing for us in Western Kentucky.”
