LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Tens of thousands of people across Jefferson County and the surrounding area remain in the dark after strong storms moved through on Sunday.
While LG&E crews worked outside, people living off Shelbyville Road made the best of the ongoing power outages. Blue Ridge Manor resident Beverly Ellington said her home lost power on Monday morning, but her family still came over for a Memorial Day barbecue.
Liz Pratt, the director of external and internal communications at LG&E, said their crews need to clear away multiple trees and branches in order to replace broken poles and get power restored. They are working 16-hour shifts to help reconnect several homes across the state.
"In addition, we brought in about 700 line workers and support personnel from our business partners here in Kentucky and from neighboring states to help support this restoration effort," Pratt said.
Over in the Hikes Point neighborhood, an entire block of homes have been without power since Sunday afternoon when the first round of storms came through the area. The power lines are located in the backyards of several houses that are covered in multiple trees. Homeowner Will Hodge said it's the main power source to their home and consistently deal with outages all the time.
"We do have a lot of trees and maybe they'll come in and do a large trimming and then we won't have to deal with this for a little while," Hodge said.
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Down the street from his house, the problem was clear as half of a tree laid on top of power lines and a garage. Across the neighborhood you could see open windows, restoration crews and generators.
Hodge said when the linemen came to their area, he and his family cheered in hopes they will have power back on by Monday night. While they've been without power, he and his wife have been making the best of their time by taking their son to a swimming pool to enjoy their time off.
At Blue Ridge Manor, Ellington said the storm got so intense that they decided to take shelter.
"We actually didn't know what was happening because we got to the basement because the wind got so bad and then we heard a loud noise," Ellington said. "I didn't know if it was our roof, something on our roof or what."
Ellington checked her yard once the storm passed and noticed it was covered in large fallen tree branches. She's never experienced a storm like that at her home in the past 33 years of living in the area.
Ellington has already made a call to have someone come clean up the debris.
As restoration efforts continue, Pratt asked for everyone to avoid fallen power lines and keep checking their website for updates.
"Currently for the Louisville area we are estimating to have power restored for the vast majority of customers who are still without power by Wednesday by 11 p.m.," Pratt said.
But that could vary as crews make their way across different parts of the metro.
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