LG&E expects most power to be restored Wednesday night as thousands reach 5th day in the dark

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Five days after severe storms with damaging winds swept through Kentucky, thousands are still without power.

LG&E said Wednesday more than 95% of customers have had their power restored, but many are still in the dark. As of 10 p.m. Wednesday, 3,327 customers in Kentucky were without power, down from 10,000 customers just before 5 p.m. That includes 1,952 in Jefferson County, down from 4,274 Wednesday afternoon.

Some of those customers with outages include small businesses.

"We're kind of stuck in this unknown or estimating when our power will be restored, which is kind of reminiscent of the pandemic for us, triggers little memories of not knowing when we can open for business and welcome our customers back," said Morgan Wessel, manager of Hot Yoga Louisville.

The yoga studio, which needs power to supply its heated studio, has had to cancel nearly 30 classes since the storm hit. It sits alongside many other businesses in a strip right off Shelbyville Road that has been in the dark since Friday. Studio managers have been checking LG&E's outage map frequently, and said the estimated times for repair have changed often.

The utility company believes most customers should have power back by 11 p.m. Wednesday. However, the jobs remaining range from small service calls to bigger tasks, in which entire utility poles need to be reconstructed before customers can get reconnected to power. Crews out off Bradford Road in the Hikes Point area have three utility poles to replace and rewire, which workers on-site said is a 12-hour job.

"We are continuing to work, we've brought in additional resources as we were able to restore power in other areas, so we have additional resources here today to get power restored for our remaining customers," LG&E/KU Spokesperson Liz Pratt said.

Pratt said Friday that the storm ranks in the top three most damaging events to its system in 20 years, bringing down more than 3,000 wires and breaking more than 700 utility poles.

LG&E encourages those still without power to continue checking their location on its outage map for the latest estimates on when their power will be restored.

To access the map, click here.