News
Buckeye Rural Working To Restore Power
By: Fred Kight
Posted on:
Dozens of Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative workers are laboring to restore service to customers in the utility's nine county service area.
Member Services Manager Bryan Long says electricity was turned back on to roughly 5,000 members Monday but as of this morning 2,600 were still affected by Friday's storm outages.
"The wind and the devastation of it was so massive that we have a number of trees that were torn, fell on lines, ripped lines down. We had poles that snapped, which obviously all have to be fixed," said Long.
Buckeye Rural is based in Gallia County and has approximately 14,000 customers.
"All available men that we have at Buckeye are out within the nine counties. We called in additional crews, we have additional crews from Western Kentucky, that came in and then we also have additional crews from area contracts that we partner with. They're in here as well. On top of that, we have crews, tree-trimming crews, that have come in to help us out," said Long.
Long says it's not possible to say right now when everyone will get turned back on.
"I wasn't here for 2003, the ice storm, but from what I've heard, rumblings around the office, that's what everybody is comparing it to," he said. "You know, obviously there's a big difference between the winter time and the summer time, but you start looking at damage and the restoration process, everybody here in the office is comparing it to the 2003 ice storm."
Long says if downed trees or limbs have torn the service from your home, an electrian should be notified to repair the member's service entrance.