BY MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
GLASGOW NEWS 1
Farmers Rural Electric Cooperative Corp. crews have outages down to 1,211 members, said Caralyne Pennington, director of member and public communications for the organization, in a press notice around 5 p.m. Tuesday.
That figure was around 16,000 Friday afternoon due to forceful winds and thunderstorms that moved through the area.
“While this is progress from just a day ago, we know those members still without power are anxious to be restored. We know it’s frustrating to not know exactly when the power will be back on – it is for us, too. Each repair is complex and unique and we will continue to tackle them until everyone has power.
“This phase of our restoration will be the most tedious process of storm recovery. While our number of members without power has been reduced, we still have more than 250 individual repairs to make, most of which are in difficult-to-reach locations or have extensive damage.”
According to the FRECC online outage viewer, roughly two hours after Pennington’s notice was distributed, it appeared that number was under 1,000. Fewer than 300 of the members left without electricity were in Barren County, but those were scattered in nearly two dozen locations.
In her Tuesday morning update, Pennington said that, throughout the duration of this outage, crews had discovered additional issues,
bringing the broken-pole count up to 75.
“Several have asked why restoration is taking so long. Unfortunately, we are still finding broken poles. Why didn’t we find them on the first day? We provide power to parts of 11 counties by maintaining more than 3,700 miles of lines and literally hundreds of thousands of poles. While we have predictive equipment on our grid, we still must drive (or even walk) miles at a time, looking for damage. As we have shared before, power restoration is very labor intensive. …
“For those without power, please look at your weatherhead/service connection. Any damage will need to be repaired before we can safely reconnect your power.”
Farmers Rural Electric Cooperative Corp. provided this graphic to help members understand the types of repairs they may need to make on their end.
An illustration, “Who Owns What Equipment?” was included to provide more information about those aspects.
The Glasgow Electric Plant Board managed to get all of its customers’ electrical power restored as of Monday, but then turned attention to further restoring broadband cable and Internet services.
A 4:30 p.m. Glasgow EPB social media post said those repairs had been taking place all day with work still needing to be done, with approximately 300 customers are still without broadband services.
“Crews will continue to work this evening and tomorrow to complete repairs and restore cable and Internet service to the remaining customers still being affected,” the post said, noting that areas of focus at that time were Hereford Lane, Simmental Lane, Shorthorn Street, Longhorn Street, Glenview Drive, Scottie Drive, Lyon Avenue, Maple Avenue, Magnolia Drive, Lexington Drive and Meadow Drive.
“If you are not located in any of those areas and are still without broadband service, we are aware of this and will be completing repairs in your area once these larger restoration efforts are finished. We apologize for the continued inconvenience,” the post states.
Meanwhile, major efforts are underway to help clear the massive amount of debris from trees and bushes that were casualties of Friday’s weather.
In this photo submitted by local resident Andrew Reece, a Glasgow Department of Public Works employee helps gather brush to clear it as utility workers did their part nearby to restore electrical power. Reece was complimentary of their teamwork.
The Glasgow Department of Public Works has placed open dumpsters in Gorin, Weldon and Beaver Creek Parks for residents to dispose of the natural-materials debris that will later be composted, and DPW crews are also working to assist with removal of larger tree trunks and branches. The dumpsters are available until 6 p.m. each day.
Emergency management – damage reporting
Glasgow-Barren County Emergency Management has been in the process of assessing reported damages for the required reports and, where appropriate, for potential assistance.
Earlier, the agency posted and otherwise offered the following information related to documenting and reporting damage.
“We understand we all want to get back to a normal and get our properties cleaned up and fixed. We certainly can’t stop you or slow you down. The only thing we ask is for you to take pictures and lots of them from different angles. Give us a call and report the damage so we can come gather your information and get the pictures you have taken. If you haul off debris we need a copy of the weight/cost ticket.”
They also need to be made aware of any damages to structures, whether it be direct wind damage, trees on structures or in roadways, or roadway infrastructure so they can do damage assessment for the property.
“Please let us know so we can gather the data needed so we can help in multiple ways, a Facebook post says, adding
“The below information is how you can report anything. Remember when leaving a message or sending information [via text or email], we need the following:
– Caller’s name,
– Name of property owner,
– Address of damage, and
– Phone number of caller and/or property owner.
Communication options are:
– Call / leave voicemail at office: 270-651-4910;
– Call / leave voicemail or text: 270-670-7567 or 270-834-9761; and/or
–Email: gbcem@glasgow-ky.com or bcemsar@glasgow-ky.com.
The agency also posted this general information statement that noted a state of emergency has been issued by local officials and what type of damage need to be documented and and such.
The agency has reminded residents that the commonwealth is under a Division of Forestry burn ban from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“If you are going to burn, please notify Barren Metcalfe Emergency Communications Center on the nonemergency number 270-651-1175 to make them aware of your controlled burn. This is to prevent unnecessary responses from our fire departments. Thank you for your assistance!”
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