Families and businesses continue to clean up following a high wind event last weekend in Appalachia Kentucky. Power crews have made significant progress this week.
The roaring winds topped out around 80 miles per hour in some parts of Eastern Kentucky Sunday night. At the peak there were reportedly more than 60,000 customers without power. Perry County Emergency Management Director Jerry Stacy said early on there were 16,000 in his county without electricity, the most he can ever remember.
“I can’t ever remember hearing the wind being as strong as it was the other night for as long as it was, Sunday night, I mean, it was unbelievable. And you know you’re talking about 70-80 mile per hour winds for three hours,” explained Stacy.
Stacy says many in his county lost electricity and water service. He says that meant going out when the coronavirus recommendation is to stay in. “Then everybody’s going to out trying to find gas for their generators and food and water and those sorts of things, it winds up bringing more people out than normally would have been, which also in turn, is a higher risk as far as the virus. But really you don’t have much choice, you got to get water,” noted Stacy.
Stacy said power crews have done good work to restore electricity. In Perry County he says those without power and likely without water service stood at about 35 hundred Thursday morning.
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