Lexington thunderstorm leads to power outages, reports of downed trees
Lexington was hit by a severe thunderstorm Friday that caused thousands of power outages and multiple trees down.
At approximately 12:30 p.m., there were 13 reports of trees down and one report of a traffic signal outage, according to Lt. Dan Truex with the Lexington Police Department. The traffic signal outage was at Clays Mill Road and Wellington Way.
The reports of downed trees included one at Richmond Road and Irvine Road, Truex said. Another was at Main Street and Ashland Avenue.
Truex said he expected more reports to come in Friday afternoon.
As of 12:50p.m., more than 5,000 residents in Fayette County were without power, according to Kentucky Utilities’ power outage map. At 2:15 p.m. that number had gone down to 4,675. At 3:30 p.m., there were 3,670 residents without power.
As of 1:15 p.m., nearly 6,000 residents were without power in Scott County, according to KU’s power outage map. At 2:15 p.m. the number of outages in Scott County was 5,309. At 3:30 p.m. that number had been cut to 2,279.
Almost 2,000 more were without power in Franklin County, but that number went down to 1,023 as of 2:15 p.m.
Just before noon, severe thunderstorms were located along a line from Owenton to Georgetown moving east at 50 miles per hour, according to the NWS. A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Fayette County. The warning was no longer in effect prior to 1 p.m. Friday.
The NWS said wind gusts could hit 60 miles per hour and penny-sized hail was also a possibility with the storm.
Damage to roofs, siding and trees is expected, the NWS said. The NWS advised moving to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building as a precaution.
Lexington emergency sirens sounded off as the storm moved into Central Kentucky. The city uses the sirens for severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado watches or chemical emergencies.
This story was originally published June 17, 2022 at 12:07 PM.
