Crews work to restore power to many parts of Woodford County following winter storm

Crews have restored many outages in Woodford County as of Friday afternoon.

Following an icy winter storm that descended on Kentucky Thursday night, more than 4,600 in Woodford County were without power Friday morning, according to the utility data aggregator website poweroutage.us. The bulk of those outages occurred among Kentucky Utilities customers.

As of 1:30 p.m. Friday, that number was down to 172 customers in Woodford County.

In an estimate around 10 a.m., KU spokesperson Daniel Lowry said more than 2,000 Woodford County customers were affected, with about 1,700 outages occurring near the Blue Grass Parkway and Huntertown Road area.

In all, Lowry said about 7,000 KU customers were without power Friday morning, spread out across outlying counties like Fayette and Scott.

This comes amid snow, frigid temperatures and dangerous wind chills that prompted the National Weather Service to place virtually the entire state under a severe weather warning Friday morning.

In Woodford County, Lowry said high wind gusts were slowing efforts to restore power and tossing tree limbs on lines, but KU crews were mobilizing to respond. Some workers volunteered to come in from their time off for the holidays to help get the lights back on, Lowry said.

He was optimistic progress would pick up once winds died down Friday afternoon.

Woodford County Judge Executive James Kay gave an update during a Facebook livestream he hosted while driving around the county Friday.

“We did have a large power outage that is impacting over 4,000 customers in Woodford County. That’s extremely unfortunate,” Kay said Friday morning. “We know that folks from Derby Hills to the courthouse all the way down past Mundy’s Landing, basically from the courthouse south, there are up to 4,000 customers impacted without power.”

Kay said he and his emergency management director had been in touch with KU to see about restoring power.

“We are working on communication with them in their efforts to restore power. If you need us, please reach out to us and let us know,” Kay said. “If there’s something going on. We will be there for you.”

Kay said the Woodford County Road Department was out plowing roads and trying to clear drifts, but “as you can see, if you do not have to be on the roads please do not be on the roads this morning.”

If you’re a KU customer who needs to report an outage, you can do so online. Bluegrass Energy customers who’ve power can report outages outline, as well..

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