Trees, power lines downed by storm

By GINA KINSLOW
Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW June 17, 2009 12:15 pm

— Local power companies had restored electricity to most of their customers in the Glasgow and Barren County area by Wednesday morning.
A storm that blew through the area knocked out power to homes and businesses served by Farmer’s Rural Electric Cooperative and the Glasgow Electric Plant Board. It also took down several trees and power lines throughout the area.
Bill Anderson, customer relations manager for Glasgow EPB, did not have a total number of customers Wednesday morning who were without power due to the storm.
“We had power problems all over town,” he said. “It was not any one section. It was everywhere.”
At press time Glasgow EPB was reporting 22 customers without power, five of which were businesses.
“We want to get people’s power back on as soon as possible,” Anderson said, adding that once that task is done the EPB will turn its attention to restoring other services, such as cable television, telephone and Internet.
“We did get one break earlier this morning. We got a contracting crew from Pike Electric to help us with some of the power work where the poles were broken off,” Anderson said.
As of 7 a.m. Wednesday officials with Farmer’s Rural Electric Cooperative reported approximately 200 customers who were still without power. A majority of those outages were in the Wisdom area of Metcalfe County with a few scattered outages in Barren County, said Jerry Carter, spokesman for FRECC in a press release.
Carter said crews were working diligently to restore power as soon as possible.
During the height of the storm Tuesday, East Kentucky Power, FRECC transmission supplier, experienced an outage at the Goodnight substation on U.S. 31E outside of Glasgow. Carter said the outage affected approximately 2,400 of the total 3,200 customers who where without power.
“Transmission service to the substation was restored within 25 minutes enabling power restoration to the bulk of the consumers served out of the Goodnight substation,” Carter said. “Service was restored to the 31E area just north of Glasgow by 8 p.m. The additional outages were storm related incidences primarily in Barren and Metcalfe counties, as we experienced 12 broken utility poles. The power outage affected approximately 13 percent of our 24,000 members served.”
The city of Horse Cave in Hart County also experienced power outages when a tree fell across a power line on East Main Street and knocked electricity out to the entire town, according to Ken Russell with the Horse Cave Development Corporation.
Capt. Kent Keen, public information officer for the Glasgow Police Department, provided a storm damage report Tuesday afternoon, from the 911 Dispatch Center Tuesday for streets, roads and other areas of Glasgow and Barren County. Damage had made some roads dangerous or impassable including U.S. 31E south near Lecta-Salem Road, West Washington and Jefferson streets, North Franklin and Water streets, Milton Avenue and Walnut Street, Cherry Street, Riverside Drive, Coral Hill and Franks Mill roads, Lucas Road, Cool Springs Road, Carden Road and Country Acres.
On Cumberland Parkway near mile marker 6, debris from a barn on Bishop Road knocked down power lines that along with the barn’s roof blocked all four lanes for 45 minutes to an hour.
A tobacco warehouse on North Jackson Road had its roof blown off as well, said Tony Richey, emergency management director for Barren County.
“We didn't have anyone report (a tornado) on the ground,” he said.
Gary Fancher, manager of Kentucky Division of Emergency Management for Region Four, reported numerous trees and power lines down in Allen, Hart, Metcalfe and Monroe counties.
The only funnel cloud reported locally was in the Huff community in Edmonson County, said Trooper Charles Swiney, spokesman for Kentucky State Police in Bowling Green. The funnel cloud did not appear to cause a large amount of damage in the area.
Hart County Judge-Executive Terry Martin said Munfordville managed to escape with very little damage due to the storm. Munfordville experienced some downed trees and was without power for about two to three hours.
“We didn't’ thave a whole lot of damage. It was mainly down around Horse Cave,” he said.
Outdoor warning sirens were sounded in Munfordville. Martin said county employees took shelter for about 35 to 40 minutes during the storm.
— Daily Times staff reports contributed to this article.

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