UPDATE, 2 p.m. — Power crews have been making headway in restoring power across Appalachia, even as the potential for more outages looms this evening.
The number of outages in Eastern Kentucky as of 2 p.m. had fallen to fewer than 19,000, down from more than 21,000 at 11 a.m. Those include nearly 7,900 for Kentucky Power, nearly 5,200 for Big Sandy RECC and more than 5,700 for Licking Valley RECC.
Likewise, Appalachian Power was reporting 93,000 outages across West Virginia and Virginia at 2 p.m., down from more than 100,000 earlier.
Among the most impacted counties, Johnson County was reporting about 4,300 outages, down more than a thousand from the morning. Meanwhile, numbers in Martin County remained nearly the same as earlier in the day, at more than 1,700 outages.
Elsewhere, Pike County had about 1,000 outages, down from 1,300; Floyd County had about 2,000, down from 2,300; Magoffin had 1,100, down from 1,300; and Lawrence more than 1,400, down from nearly 1,800.
The gains in restoring power could be short-lived. The National Weather Service is predicting sustained winds of 20 to 25 mph this evening, with gusts of up to 30 mph. Those winds could be enough to topple trees that were weakened by yesterday’s ice storm.
UPDATE, 11 a.m. — Power restoration has been a seesaw affair Monday morning, as crews restore power in some areas and begin chipping away at the totals, only to see numbers balloon once more as more lines come down.
Outages across Eastern Kentucky now total more than 21,000 at 11 a.m., including more than 10,000 Kentucky Power customers, nearly 5,600 for Big Sandy RECC and nearly 5,500 for Licking Valley RECC. Across the entire service area of the three utilities, 11 percent of customers are without power, but individual county numbers vary widely.
Johnson County remains particularly hard hit. After seeing some improvement earlier in the morning, outages have once again grown to nearly 5,400 customers, or about 43 percent of the county. That includes 59 percent of Big Sandy RECC customers and 32 percent of Kentucky Power customers.
Martin County is also dealing with large-scale outages, as nearly a third of the county is now without power. That includes 697 Big Sandy RECC customers, or 91 percent, and more than a thousand Kentucky Power customers, or 22 percent.
Elsewhere around the region, Pike County is dealing with 1,300 outages, Floyd has 2,300, Magoffin has 1,300 and Lawrence has nearly 1,800.
Appalachian Power is now reporting more than 103,000 outages, or 10 percent of their more than 1 million customers in West Virginia and Virginia. Those include 1,200 in Logan County and nearly 300 in Mingo County, in West Virginia, and fewer than 350 combined in Buchanan, Dickenson and Wise counties.
UPDATE, 6 a.m. — Power outages have continued to slowly inch upward through the early morning hours, with more than 20,000 customers in Eastern Kentucky now in the dark.
That includes 10,000 customers for Kentucky Power, 4,600 for Big Sandy RECC and 5,400 for Licking Valley RECC.
Among the hardest hit areas is Johnson County, where more than a third of all homes and businesses were without power at 6 a.m. That amounts to more than 4,600 customers. About 40 percent of Martin County, or 2,000 customers, were in the dark Monday morning.
About 2,000 customers in Floyd County and 1,500 in Pike were without power.
Appalachian Power is reporting 45,000 of its 1 million customers in Virginia and West Virginia are now without power. That included roughly 1,400 customers in Mingo and Logan counties in West Virginia and fewer than 400 in Buchanan, Dickenson and Wise counties in Virginia.
The first wave of a winter storm system began moving out of the region early Monday morning, leaving thousands of homes without power.
Freezing rain which began early Sunday evening coated trees and power lines throughout the Appalachian region, resulting in the number of power outages steadily climbing overnight.
Hardest hit have been customers of Big Sandy RECC and Licking Valley RECC, which have each seen more than 40 percent of their customers plunged into darkness as of 4 a.m.
At Big Sandy RECC, around 2,200 customers in Johnson County were without power at 4 a.m., or 42 percent of the utility’s customers in that county. That was down from a high of 2,900.
All of Big Sandy’s 312 customers in Knott and Breathitt counties and nearly 1,100 customers in Martin and Lawrence counties, or roughly 85 percent, were without power. Also affected were 987 customers in Floyd County, or 17 percent.
Licking Valley was reporting more than 6,700 of its more than 16,000 customers were without power, with high numbers in Morgan, Magoffin and Breathitt counties.
Outages across Kentucky Poiwer’s service area were approaching 10,000 of its 160,000 customers. That included more than 2,300 in Johnson County, more than 1,400 in Pike, more than 1,300 in Martin, more than 1,200 in Breathitt and more than 1,100 in Floyd.
Appalachian Power was reporting 28,000 of its 1 million customers across West Virginia and Virginia were without power at 4 a.m.
Round 2 of the storm is expected to move through the area today, bringing about another inch or two of snow, followed by temperatures plunging into the teens and gusty winds that could cause more outages by toppling trees and limbs already weakened by ice.
