Power slowly returns to Woodford County after transformer damage; warming shelter opens
WOODFORD COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) — Kentucky Utilities has restored power to most customers affected by a transformer failure at a Woodford County substation on Tuesday morning.
The outage began just before 11 a.m. when a damaged transformer knocked out power to about 3,000 customers, mostly south of Versailles. KU spokesman Daniel Lowry said the transformer failure is possibly weather-related, but crews are investigating the exact cause.
Lowry said crews were able to re-route power to restore service to many customers. As of 5:30 p.m., about 700 customers remained without power. The utility company does not have an accurate estimated restoration time for the remaining customers, but it will keep its outage map updated.
Warming shelter opens
Woodford County is now opening an overnight shelter for families.
It will be at Falling Springs Center on 275 Beasley Road in Versailles.
Service animals are allowed.
Residents prepared for cold weather emergency
Judi Hogg, a Woodford County resident, said it took her only a couple of minutes to realize the electricity wasn’t running.
She said the power came back on in her neighborhood after about an hour in the dark. Hogg is staying to care for her elderly mother through the cold snap and is prepared for the situation.
“I have a portable generator and then also have other power sources so [my mom and I] could stay here for a good 24 hours without even worrying about it,” Hogg said.
Brayden Staff, another Woodford County resident, said he noticed the outage when his laptop stopped charging.
“I was doing school work for my online classes at the University of Cumberlands, and my MacBook was on like 3%, so I was kind of mad that it went out because I was charging it, so I wasn’t able to do the work,” Staff said.
Both residents said they now know what to do if the power fails again.
“Hopefully it doesn’t, but we have everything we need, all of our blankets ready, our fireplace was working earlier, so if it goes off again, hopefully that works,” Staff said.
Hogg recommends people gather what they can in case others experience something similar.
“You have to get prepared before it happens, not after it happens,” Hogg said.
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