Power restoration has been slow going in areas hard-hit by Hurricane Helene last week, and that includes areas in Kentucky where Evergy crews have been working.
Evergy sent crews to an area near Hazard, two hours south of Lexington, Kentucky’s second-largest city, and Ashland, two hours east of Lexington. Evergy Director of Regional Operations Corey Miller says mountainous terrain is new for a lot of the relief crew members.
Miller says this is extremely labor-intensive work.
In other cases, crew members have had to rappel down to the bottom of a ravine to repair or replace a downed conductor and then pull themselves back up. There has also been a fair amount of work to set poles by hand due to the conditions.
Evergy has released over 300 linemen and support staff for the ongoing work in Kentucky. The current plan will send those workers to Virginia once their work in Kentucky is done.
