FRANKFORT, KY:  4 P.M. – Kentucky Power line crews continued restoring power to approximately 24,800 customers after a dangerous storm packing high winds moved across Kentucky Power’s service territory late Wednesday afternoon. At the height of outage cases, the company had approximately 38,800 customers lose power. The storm’s high winds caused extensive damage to power company facilities and equipment as trees and tree branches fell across power lines, utility poles and support structures broke and wires fell to the ground.
 
Kentucky Power crews worked today to evaluate damage and return circuits to service as safely and quickly as possible. At this time, Kentucky Power estimates it may be as late as midnight Monday before all its customers see their power restored. Most customers will see their power restored before Monday, however.
 
The company reports there are many downed power lines throughout its service area and cautioned residents to never approach downed power lines. No matter 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.
 
Kentucky Power asks residents without power not to stop linemen, crew trucks or tree trimmers as they work or travel; doing so will only hinder ongoing restoration efforts. The company asks customers for their patience and understanding as we make repairs to electrical facilities serving them.
 
As of 4 p.m. today, the following outage numbers were estimated by the company. Company officials explained these numbers could rise and fall as new outage situations are identified or reported. Kentucky Power is bringing additional, outside resources in to help restore power.
 
Service Area: Customers Out,  Primary Counties
Ashland/Cannonsburg: 2,600, (Boyd, Carter, Greenup, Lawrence Counties) *
Hazard: 8,300, (Breathitt, Knott, Leslie, Perry Counties)**
Paintsville: 2,300, (Johnson, Morgan, Magoffin Counties)**
Pikeville: 6,700, (Floyd, Knott, Pike Counties)**
South Williamson: 3,300, (Martin, Pike Counties)**
Whitesburg: 1,600, (Letcher County)**
 
Total 24,800
 
*Estimated full restoration for this area: noon, Saturday
** Estimated full restoration for this area: midnight, Monday
 
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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