Nearly 20,000 customers without power after storms; half now restored

Nearly 20,000 residents in western Kentucky were without power early Thursday morning after winds indicated by radar at 60 to 80 miles per hour or higher brought down trees and power lines overnight during heavy rainfall.

That number of outages was reduced to around 10,000 by noon.

At one time after midnight, a portion of Graves County saw radar-indicated winds of 80, 90 and up to 105 miles per hour.

As of 5 am Thursday, Graves County had 9200 customers without power, or more than 40 percent of the county according to the website Poweroutage.us . That number was under 7000 by 7 am, and 4400 by noon.

At 9:10 AM electricity was restored to Graves County administrative offices. They were set to reopen at 11 am.

Calloway County had more than 5300 out overnight, down to 1900 by noon; Ballard County 1900 reduced to 1190; Marshall County 1470 reduced to 600; Carlisle County 1300 down to 970, and McCracken County over 500 reduced to 250 by noon.

Please keep in mind that some areas received much heavier damage than others, and recovery will be much slower in clearing downed trees, setting new poles and restringing wires.

Local sheriffs are also warning drivers to continue to be very cautious driving on roads are blocked by downed trees and power lines.

Flooding was also occurring in places where 3 to 5 inches of rain fell overnight, including Carlisle, Graves, Marshall, Calloway and southern McCracken counties.

You can check progress in restoring power to your county  here  .


Map: poweroutage.us