Utility and county and city clean-up crews continue the difficult task of restoring power and removing fallen trees and debris following damage caused by extreme winds on Friday. Severe thunderstorms ultimately missed our area but the destruction caused by Friday afternoon and evening’s high winds left numerous trees and power lines down and several roads closed in its wake.
Wind gusts of 60 to 70 miles per hour were recorded throughout the area Friday.
South Kentucky RECC and Kentucky Utilities crews as well as mutual aid crews from other states are working around the clock and remain committed to restore all power in Russell County and throughout the Lake Cumberland area. An exact timeframe to have every outage restored has not been determined.
At its peak, more than 34,000 people across the South Kentucky RECC coverage area were without power on Friday. In Russell County, more than 5,000 power outages were reported at one point.
Four fatalities in the state were directly linked to Friday’s high winds. Gov. Andy Beshear also declared a state of emergency in Kentucky on Friday, allowing the state to apply for federal aid, among other things, as the clean-up continues.