Utilities crews from across the country assisting LG&E, KU

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Utility crews from other states are now assisting LG&E and Kentucky Utilities to help turn the power back on for many as quickly as possible.

Monday, 1,500 crews from other states, including West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois and even as far as Florida left the Kentucky Horse Park to help customers in Kentucky still without power.

According to LG&E/KU, there are about 80,000 customers still without power in Kentucky as of publishing time.

The state’s record for outages is 609,000 customers as a result of 2009’s historic ice storm.

According to LG&E and KU, the storm impacted more than 300,000 of its customers and brought down 2,500 wires.

Officials with KU say this is the third most significant outage event in the company’s history in the past 20 years, asking for patience as they continue to assess the damage.

“The first phase is safety, making sure we get to those wires that are down. We also are assessing the damages so that we can restore power properly, and then we go and tackle the critical infrastructure. We look at the hospitals, fire stations, airports, that sort of thing. And then we’re able to tackle getting the homes up as quickly and safely as possible,” said LG&E/KU spokesperson Daniel Lowry.

Lowry says while other states are experiencing similar outages and damage from storms, no Kentucky Utilities crews have left the state, making Kentucky its top priority.

Lowry says it’s estimated power will be back on for its customers by Wednesday at 11 p.m., but is hoping a majority of customers will have power back by Monday night.