Wednesday’s powerful storms ripped through the Tri-state, bringing down power lines, poles and other critical electrical infrastructure. More than 245,000 customers were without power.
Crews responded quickly and as of 5 p.m. Thursday, 32,000 customers remain without power.
The company expects to restore the majority of customers by 11:59 p.m. Friday; however, many customers will be restored before this time.
There will be some customers that may need to complete repairs to their homes and have inspections completed before Duke can make final restoration for them.
“We know that this is an extremely challenging time, and that extended power outages can cause added stress,” said Duke Energy Ohio and Kentucky President Amy Spiller. “We worked overnight to restore service to hospitals, fire and police departments, and other critical facilities. We have an army of resources responding to speed power restoration and thank our customers for their patience while we restore their power.”
There is widespread damage across the service territory, with over 40 distribution and 7 transmission utility poles broken during the storm. Unfortunately, these types of repairs take multiple crews and many manpower hours to complete and rehang the new line. Trees have been toppled and many came down on our utility lines.
Customers experiencing a power outage can report their outage to us in multiple ways – by phone at 800.543.5599, Duke Energy’s mobile app, online through the company’s website or by texting their outage to 57801.
The company is cautioning the public to avoid fallen power lines and assume they are energized. Do not touch a power line or anything in contact with it and keep others away until help arrives.
“These are unusual times, and for everyone’s safety in this period of social distancing, we ask the public to please not approach our crews in the field but allow them to focus on their work,” Spiller said. “Please call us instead with any questions you have.”