In the wake of Hurricane Irene’s path, millions of people are without power after heavy rain and wind speeds averaging 72 miles per hour whipped along the East Coast.
Since last Friday, Kentucky Utilities and its parent company, Louisville Gas & Electric, have sent more than 300 employees and contractors to assist Dominion Power in Virginia and PPL Electric Utilities in Pennsylvania, which include an additional 25 employee line technicians who left for Pennsylvania on Monday.
The full set of resources includes line technicians, team leaders, safety specialists and tree trimmers. These efforts are a result of LG&E and KU’s participation in nationwide mutual assistance organizations, in which a collection of utility companies assist other utilities in times of natural disasters and crisis situations.
While Hurricane Irene was downgraded Sunday to a tropical storm, it caused widespread destruction as it made its way up the coast. Crews are putting in long days helping with the extensive restoration efforts, while dealing with heavy flooding, inaccessible roads and highways, damaged poles, downed wires and other storm-related damage.
"We’re committed to helping PPL Electric Utilities and Dominion Power restore power as quickly and safely as possible," said David Guy, Director of System Restoration and Dispatch Operations for LG&E and KU. “As power is restored in these service territories and our crews are released, we’ll look to see if there are still requests for assistance in other areas.”
Earlier this month, after severe weather ravaged Kentucky, LG&E and KU leveraged their participation in the mutual assistance program to bring in more than 1,650 workers from Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania to complement a full array of LG&E and KU crews, who led the charge in restoring power to more than 182,800 customers.
Crews will continue to restore power for the requesting utilities until no longer needed and as long as weather patterns remain calm in LG&E and KU’s service territory. As of noon on Monday, more than 4 million customers are without power along the East Coast.
Some of the crews sent to the East Coast are from the service area that includes Marion.
