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Days after nearly 80-mph winds swept through Louisville, thousands are still in the dark as LG&E scrambles to restore power.
As it blew through the Ohio River valley, the weather system beat Louisville’s all-time record for low pressure, according to the National Weather Service, producing strong winds that lasted for hours Friday.
In the wake of the storm, which LG&E has characterized as one of the worst in its history, the utility has had to prioritize where to restore power first, with thousands of downed power lines.
Here are answers to some common questions about LG&E’s process:
How does LG&E prioritize repairs after a storm?
When storms first begin to roll into the region, LG&E said it was already watching the situation and coordinating with other utilities, businesses and government agencies as part of its typical procedures.
Medical and nursing homes, fire and police buildings and airports are the first on LG&E’s list for power restoration, according to spokesperson Liz Pratt.
At least one Louisville facility that provides care, Highlands Nursing & Rehabilitation, did not have power restored until Monday. Pratt didn’t share details on that instance, but added that LG&E keeps a running list of facilities that provide “critical care,” and that it’s possible the list didn’t include every one of those existing facilities.
Monday storm updates:Gov. Beshear says about 125,000 still without power
Once known critical care facilities are back online, Pratt said the utility then looks at locations where it can restore power to the greatest number of customers possible, through a combination of repairing equipment and rerouting power as needed.
In some cases, temporary equipment repairs may be made in a neighborhood to restore power quickly, and then crews will return later for a more permanent fix. Some residents may still be without power even after broader repairs are finished, in which case LG&E will check on their individual service lines, Pratt said.
When will power be restored to all of Louisville?
LG&E said it has crews working night and day to restore power in its service territory, and has brought in 1,500 additional workers to assist in the repairs.
While LG&E has set a broad estimate of Wednesday night for city-wide power restoration, Pratt encouraged residents to keep a close eye on its online outage map, where the utility is providing more specific, street-level restoration estimates.
Those estimates come from LG&E’s crews on the ground, who are assessing outages on an individual basis and submitting restoration estimates to the utility to keep the outage map updated.
Why hasn’t LG&E restored power yet?
Despite LG&E’s boosted staff and around-the-clock efforts, the historic storm knocked out a massive amount of equipment.
The sheer breadth of the damage — about 2,500 downed power lines and 500 broken utility poles — has left a significant task for crews, and it’s taking time to recover. Workers are also dealing with downed trees and other debris.
For this weather event, “the magnitude cannot be understated,” Pratt said.
Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter for The Courier Journal and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. The program funds up to half of corps members’ salaries, but requires a portion also be raised through local community fundraising. To support local environmental reporting in Kentucky, tax-deductible donations can be made atcourier-journal.com/RFA.
Learn more about RFA atreportforamerica.org. Reach Connor directly at [email protected] or on Twitter@byconnorgiffin.
