With Ice Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories from the National Weather Service set to expire, plenty of work still remains for west Kentucky’s electric and transportation crews.
Following Thursday’s bout with a wicked wintry mix, and Friday’s frolic with falling temperatures and a light snowfall, the Weather Edge listening area still has some downed powerlines causing interruption, some downed trees blocking roads, and other modes of travel stymied.
Pennyrile Electric Vice President of Member Services and Communication Brent Gilkey said crews were rotating all through the night trying to restore electricity to more than 5,000 customers who experienced outages Thursday.
Gilkey said that’s mostly down to around 2,000 customers in the Cadiz area, and roughly 1,000 customers in the Hopkinsville area.
One small blessing in this storm, Gilkey noted, is that most of the company’s backbone remains intact. Few, if any, electric poles were toppled in this storm. Instead, it was the weight of iced branches, and the ice itself, bringing down powerlines and removing their tether from the pole base.
Gilkey added there’s no comparison to the 2009 damage. This is much lighter.
Power remains out for several pockets in Princeton, Eddyville and the surrounding area.
