High winds knock out power across the Commonwealth

Montgomery Co. Schools canceled classes due to widespread power outages caused by high winds

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) — Strong winds have knocked out power for thousands across the Commonwealth, forcing Montgomery County Schools to cancel classes Wednesday.

Wind gusts reaching a reported 40 to 50 miles per hour, damaged utility lines, leaving parts of Mount Sterling in the dark. Wednesday morning, many residents woke up without electricity as crews worked to restore power.

“Maysville Road, north of the bypass was just completely dark, traffic lights out,” said Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Dr. Matt Thompson. “When we looked at the outage map and contacted KU it was roughly 2500 homes across the county effected,” said Thompson.

With one school completely without power and multiple areas impacted, the Montgomery County School District decided to cancel classes.

“Knowing that we had 2 large outages affecting multiple schools and then of course all of those areas go into our middle school and high school, we knew that our families were going to be impacted significantly as well as we had one school without power completely,” said Thompson.

School districts across Kentucky have faced multiple closures and NTI days this year due to extreme weather. Montgomery County has already used all 10 of its allotted NTI days and is now on its fourth traditional closed day.

“The largest number of NTI days we have used in Montgomery County prior to this year, I think was 5, and so we never want to use all 10,” Thompson said.

As of Wednesday morning, a few hundred Montgomery County residents remain without power. Kentucky Utilities reports service should be fully restored by the afternoon.