FRANKFORT, KY – Kentucky Power line crews made steady progress today restoring power to thousands of customers who lost electricity service following Friday night’s severe storms. At the height of the outages last night, more than 23,000 Kentucky Power customers lost power after high winds knocked down power lines, broke utility poles and downed trees and tree limbs across power lines.
 
At this hour, less than 2,200 customers throughout the company’s 20-county service territory remain without power.
 
After isolating and repairing downed power lines, company officials remind residents of Eastern Kentucky 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 company reported the following outage numbers.

Service Area       Number of Customers      Est. Restoration
Hazard                             110                          Noon Sunday
Paintsville                             7                          Late Saturday Night
Pikeville                          1,811                        Late Sunday Night
South Williamson               226                        6 p.m. Sunday
Total                              2,154
 
As steady progress is being made in the restoration effort, this is the last press release the company expects to issue detailing the restoration progress. However, customers and media representatives may continue to review outage numbers and other restoration news by logging onto www.kentuckypower.com and selecting "current outage information."

Kentucky Power appreciates the patience and understanding of its customers as crews work to safely restore service as quickly as possible.
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 is the nation’s largest generator of electricity, owning more than 36,000 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 utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2006.