Utilities crews from all over the country are assisting LG&E and KU

LEXINGTON, Kentucky (WTVQ) – Utility crews from other states are now assisting LG&E and Kentucky Utilities in restoring power to as many people as possible as soon as possible.

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

As of publication time, approximately 80,000 customers in Kentucky were still without power, according to LG&E/KU.

As a result of the historic ice storm in 2009, the state set a record for outages with 609,000 customers.

According to LG&E and KU, the storm affected over 300,000 customers and downed 2,500 wires.

KU officials say this is the third most significant outage in the company’s history in the last 20 years, and they ask for patience as they assess the damage.

“The first phase is safety, making sure we get to the downed wires. We are also assessing the damage so that we can properly restore power, and then we will move on to the critical infrastructure. We look at hospitals, fire stations, and airports, for example. “Then we can focus on getting the homes up as quickly and safely as possible,” said LG&E/KU spokesperson Daniel Lowry.

While other states are experiencing similar outages and storm damage, Lowry says no Kentucky Utilities crews have left the state, making Kentucky the company’s top priority.

Lowry estimates that power will be restored to its customers by Wednesday at 11 p.m., but hopes that the majority of customers will have power restored by Monday night.