City and power company again blame strong winds for long-term power loss

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) For the second time in four months, thousands of people were without power in Lexington after severe storms rolled through the area on Sunday.

Local officials say they are doing everything they can.

“We had 18 intersections without power, so we had police at some of those running them,” Mayor Linda Gorton said. “We’ve had lights that have been put up overnight. I mean, it’s all kinds of issues that they’re dealing with. And we’ve had firefighters, police, streets and roads, all kinds of people who have been part of this major effort.”

The same goes for the city’s main electricity supplier, Kentucky Utilities (KU).

In March, KU said more than 3,400 wires were down and 760 poles were broken across their entire LG&E system.

Power took days to be restored.

On Monday, LG&E and KU spokesman Daniel Lowry said more than 200 wires were down and 20 utility poles were broken.

Lowry says it may take days for customers this time around, but they’ve enlisted the help of partners in the area. About 300 workers were on the ground Monday trying to restore power to more than 19,000 customers.

“Luckily, this one won’t last that long,” Lowry said. We expect everyone to be back by 11:30 p.m. on July 4.”

Strong winds, power outage?

When asked what infrastructure could be improved to help with the loss of power, officials had no specific answers.

While acknowledging that changing weather conditions are causing more severe storms in the region, Gorton said conversations could take place in the future to make systems more reliable.

“They’re looking at all of that. I’ve had conversations with them,” Gorton said. “It’s their business, so they don’t want to have any problems with it.”

Gorton says the government will be “flexible”.

“We have people in government watching this and keeping track of the data and I think we need to be prepared for changes and be flexible. We have a lot of people working on the storms and helping to clean up,” says Gordon.

She says the only budget impact at the moment has been personal with overtime.

Regarding the impact of climate change on government resources and planning, Gorton says the city is working on its Empower Lexington plan. It should include sustainable options for greater energy efficiency.

Some community members wondered if the lack of tree pruning had an impact on the damage.

“I think they’ve really pruned more in the last couple of years once we’ve made our deal with them and of course there will always be massive trees,” Gorton said.

Asked about potential infrastructure improvements, Lowry said KU is doing everything it can.

“We make a lot of investments to make sure our system is as robust as possible to withstand extreme weather conditions, but in cases where you have very bad storms and strong gusts of wind, you often get branches of trees and trees that are knocked down,” Lowry said.

Asked about running more underground lines, Lowry said it would be a costly expense. Right now they are paying customers.

Progress?

In May, city officials provided a review of the March storm response.

The review found that work needed to be done to update technology and software to better communicate internally, open emergency operations sooner, upgrade the E911 system, provide resources to people with medical devices and battery-powered chainsaws, and to improve communication with KU.

The mayor’s office reports that communication has improved across the board, funding for battery-powered chainsaws has been included in the FY24 budget, the emergency operations center was open, there is no There were no shipping issues Sunday night and they communicated with the public quickly and consistently.

The city is still seeking grants to upgrade the E911 system and purchase medical charging devices.

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Tuesday, July 11, 6 p.m., The Lyric Theater and Cultural Arts Center, 300 E. 3rd St., Lexington, Ky. 40508 | Register

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