Thousands in Louisville still waiting for power to be restored after Sunday storms

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Thousands of Louisville residents are still waiting for the lights to come back on following the weekend storm. Many are also cleaning up fallen trees and picking up branches.

By Tuesday afternoon, the LG&E storm outage map showed roughly 11,000 people were without power in Jefferson County.

The sound of chainsaws could be heard in Louisville neighborhoods, as residents and utility workers tried to clear downed trees. Piles of debris filled with twigs and leaves were piled up in yards, and at least one car had obvious dents, damage and a busted window.

As night falls on day three of the cleanup, areas from Clifton Heights and Middletown, to Pleasure Ridge Park were bracing for another dark and silent night waiting for power to be restored.

Liz Pratt from LG&E said crews are working around the clock to get the power back on, but the storms on Sunday did a lot of damage across Kentucky.

"This storm system affected more than 180,000 LG&E and KU customers," she said.

In Fern Creek, Ray Williams is one of the thousands of Louisvillians still living with no electricity. "Rough, rough, especially when you can't do a whole lot of things."

Relying on a generator, Williams said this isn't the first time he's dealt with power outages for days at a time.

Just a few houses down, his neighbor Mike McGuffin has a garage door that was damaged by the high winds, but he has electricity.

"Oh yeah, my power come back on within two and-a-half hours of it going off," McGuffin said.

LG&E said crews are assessing damage and getting power restored. Pratt said she understands some areas can have power, while neighbors are still without.

"That may be due to damage on the section of powerline that provides their service," she explained.

LG&E said in addition to downed wires, there were reports of 85 broken and damaged poles in Louisville.

In some cases, like at the Butchertown Flats apartment complex in Clifton Heights, a huge tree brought down a section of a power line.

"... and broke it, broke equipment and broke poles," said Pratt.

There are several repairs that need to be made before power can be restored. Crews were working there for hours Tuesday.

The storm that tore through Kentucky on Sunday morning left damage from high winds. One tornado was confirmed by the National Weather Service in Meade County.

At least five people died as a result of the storms in Kentucky. The deaths happened in Jefferson, Hardin, Hopkins, Mercer and Caldwell counties.

In east Louisville, a man died when a tree fell on him in the Owl Creek neighborhood. Officials in Hardin County said a 62-year-old Radcliff woman died of cardiac arrest, after she went down her stairs to take cover.

Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday the hardest hit areas of Kentucky were in Hopkins and Muhlenberg counties. Major damage was also reported in Graves county.

Powerful storms over the long Memorial Day weekend are blamed for at least 23 deaths across the U.S.

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