KU LG&E sends crews to assist with Hurricane Ian power outages

Crews left from Lexington's Operations Center early Wednesday morning

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Hurricane Ian continues to intensify as people scramble to make last-minute preparations and evacuations.

In Kentucky, agencies are working to help send aid to Florida and Georgia. Early Wednesday morning, a group of more than 200 Kentucky Utilities and LG&E employees and 14 utility trucks left KU’s Lexington Operations Center to prepare to help with Hurricane Ian’s impact.

“We know with the forecast, we’re in a situation where we can respond,” said KU LG&E spokesman Daniel Lowry.

The convoy’s mission? To help get power restored to areas where thousands are already seeing outages in Georgia and Florida.

The convoy will go to staging areas where they’ll work with local utilities to help restore power, one of many KU convoys across Central Kentucky lending a helping hand.

“We’ve got folks rolling out from Richmond, Maysville, Danville, Shelbyville, London, and other places to help with response,” said Lowry.

Line technicians, safety specialists, team leaders, and other support staff are all headed south.

This isn’t the only Kentucky agency helping out: also helping is Kentucky’s Transportation Secretary, issuing a temporary order lifting some restrictions for semi-truck drivers headed to assist with relief efforts.

Additionally, the Kentucky Air National Guard is sending three C-130 military planes, with a crew of about 120, to Tampa to help the Florida National Guard.

“Well this is what we do, as Kentucky Utilities, as Americans, we help each other in times of crisis. And this is a situation where lots of folks could face power outages and we want to do our part to respond and help,” said Lowry.

KU’s convoy left around 7 a.m.