LOUISVILLE, Ky. — If you live in a more remote area, and you don't have power now, it could be a while.
That grim reality is facing tens of thousands right now in Eastern Kentucky after a second punch from Mother Nature knocked out lights to tens of thousands.
"It's like a bomb went off in some of these places,” State Rep. Derek Lewis said. The 90th District Republican lawmaker works in Leslie County, one of the areas hit hard by Monday’s storm.
Ice was already built up on the power lines from a storm last week when round two roared in Monday night.
A swath of ice dealt a crushing blow.
Of the nearly 150,000 without power in this area right now, 85,000 are serviced by electric cooperatives.
"It's one thing to string a wire back up to a pole after a tree brings it down”, Joe Arnold of the Kentucky Electric Cooperatives, said. “It's something else for the pole to have snapped. It's a much more much longer arduous process.”
The Kentucky Electric Cooperatives have captured images frozen in time from across the region as they race to safely replace splintered poles, restring lines and clear roads. But what they're experiencing right now reminds many of the 2009 storm that left many in the dark for weeks in our area, and so there's a grim warning.
“If you are currently without power, given the extensive comprehensive damage to the system, it is best to prepare,” Arnold said. “If you do not have adequate heat or adequate food for the next coming days, I would not cross your fingers and hope it comes back on. I would make plans now to find an alternate place to stay and another source of food.”
Representative Lewis, a pharmacy owner, said he and his crew had no choice but to try and brave the weather to get to work because many of the medically fragile rely up on them to keep their medicine refilled. He’s also hearing of churches stepping up to help those without power.
“I think we all have to come together,” Rep. Lewis said. “I know my church reached out to our congregation earlier and invited people to come and stay at the church and get something to eat there and I think that's what really need to do going forward. Everybody look out for each other.”
Officials are also asking people in that area to stay home if they don't have to go out because they have had to deal with cars sliding into power poles and knocking out the electricity to homes that were otherwise unaffected by the storm.
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