FRANKFORT, KY – A strong winter storm packing rain, sleet, ice and snow covered Kentucky Power’s service area all day Tuesday and into the night causing more than 31,700 customers to lose power. The storm caused and continues to cause extensive damage to power equipment as ice-laden trees and tree branches snapped and fell across power lines, bringing them down in some cases while breaking utility poles and causing electrical faults in others.
 
Kentucky Power crews continue to assess damage and make repairs to electrical circuits in an effort to return customers to service as safely and quickly as possible. Despite their best efforts, Kentucky Power estimates it could be Wednesday, Feb. 4 before all of its customers are returned to service. Continued bad weather throughout the region has made restoration very challenging in many locations as crews deal with weather-related dangers as well as those inherent in working with electricity.
 
Company officials caution Eastern Kentucky residents to never approach downed power lines or wires of any type. 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 10 a.m. today, the following outage numbers were estimated by the company. Company officials explained these numbers can rise and fall throughout the day as the storm continues to manifest itself and new outage situations are identified and addressed.
 
Service Area
Cannonsburg, 17,400
Est. Rest. for all customers, midnight, Wed., 2/4/09
 
Hazard, 560
Est. Rest. for all customers, 6 PM today
 
Paintsville, 9,700
Est. Rest. for all customers, midnight, Sun. 2/1/09
 
Pikeville, 150
Est. Rest. for all customers, midnight, today
 
South Williamson, 3,400
Est. Rest. for all customers, midnight, Friday 1/30/09
 
Total 31,210
 
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.