FRANKFORT, KY  9 P.M.– A fast moving, severe storm packing extremely high winds moved across Kentucky Power’s eastern Kentucky service area late Wednesday afternoon causing approximately 37,000 customers to lose power. The storm caused extensive damage to Kentucky Power electrical facilities ranging from downed power lines to broken utility poles to downed trees and tree limbs across power lines.
 
Kentucky Power crews were assessing damage and working to return circuits to service as safely and quickly as possible, although they cautioned it may be as late as midnight Sunday before all customers see their power restored.
 
Company officials also cautioned Eastern Kentucky residents to never approach downed power lines. No mater how harmless a downed wire may appear it should be considered energized and dangerous. Report all downed power lines to Kentucky Power at (800) 572-1113 or notify local emergency or law enforcement officials immediately. Never approach or touch anything that comes in contact with a downed power line.
 
As of 9 p.m. today, the following outage numbers were estimated by the company. Company officials explained these numbers could rise and fall throughout the overnight hours as high winds continue and new outage situations are identified or reported.
 
Service Area
Ashland/Cannonsburg District: 3,900
Hazard District: 10,400
Paintsville District: 4,100
Pikeville District: 9,000
South Williamson District: 4,500
Whitesburg District: 3,100
 
Total 35,000
 
Customers and media representatives can track the number of outages in their area by going to www.kentuckypower.com and clicking on "storm & outage center" then "see current outages." The site provides a customer outage count by county.
 
Kentucky Power is an operating unit of American Electric Power and provides electricity to approximately 175,000 customers in all or parts of 20 Eastern Kentucky counties.
 
American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.
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