Nearly 10,000 without power morning after storms sweep Louisville region (2024)

FAQs

How fast does power come back after a storm? ›

Utility workers can fix a minor incident, such as a fallen power line, in around 2-3 hours. But when the cause of a blackout is severe weather or a natural disaster, you can expect to be out for several days and even months in some extreme cases.

Utility poles, wires, transformers and other electrical equipment are easy targets for lightning strikes, causing severe damage and loss of power. Lightning also frequently strikes trees causing tree limbs or even large trees to fall onto utility lines.

In many cases the outage points to the fact that parts that are located outside – such as power outlets, plugs, lamps or cable connections – are not water tight. As soon as moisture comes into contact with them, the ground fault of a distribution board will shut off, or the fuses of a traditional fuse box will blow.

Why does power go out in a thunderstorm? It's a combination of lightning in the thunderstorm hitting parts of the power system and thunderstorms producing a lot of wind. This wind not only damages the system directly but blows things like trees, tree limbs and occasionly other things into the wires.

Outages typically last 1-2 hours.

Depending on the size and track of the hurricane, storm surge flooding can last for several hours. It then recedes after the storm passes. Water level heights during a hurricane can reach 20 feet or more above normal sea level.

Heavy rain and strong winds can bring down trees and branches onto power lines, causing outages. The grounding of electrical systems can also be compromised in wet conditions, leading to safety mechanisms tripping to prevent further damage or danger.

High winds, lightning strikes and heavy rains can all put a lot of strain on the equipment that carries our power - and an unexpected, weather-created problem could create a sudden surge.

Most commonly, the circuit breaker has been overloaded and tripped off. The circuit breakers are typically found in the breaker panel box that is often located in the garage, basem*nt, or utility room. The second most common reason is there is a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) that has tripped off.

Turn off and unplug small appliances

Televisions, computer equipment, game consoles, fans, lights and all other smaller appliances should be unplugged, especially if they were in use when the power went out. Larger appliances, such as refrigerators, should not be unplugged.

Why does only half of my house have power after a storm? ›

This is an indication of a loose connection on a feed coming to the house or at you service equipment outside ( meter socket, attachment wires to the house, etc.). It's not uncommon for a surge when the power is restored for a loose connection to become worse.

During a press conference on Friday night, President Maduro denounced that the national blackout was caused by an attack against the Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant, known as the Guri Dam, the country's main source of electricity. The 10,235 MW dam is located in eastern Bolívar state.

Reset the main breaker by turning the switch off and on two times. Leave the switch in the on position. Return to the breaker panel inside your home and turn each breaker back to the on position, one by one. In many cases, power is now restored.

Monthly billed customers: once we receive your payment, we'll send the Reconnection Order to your local utility. If you have a traditional analog meter, please be advised that it can take 24 – 48 hours for your power to be reconnected, depending on the workload of the utility technicians.

After placing the necessary safeguards, they can begin working to solve the problems—and those can seem endless. Linemen might have to cut up a tree that has fallen on a line, requiring chain saws and other ground-maintenance equipment. They might need to remove broken lines and string new ones.

Each planned power outage is likely to last around three hours, and in emergency cases, this could be longer. You'll be contacted before it's planned, with the details of the time when the power will be cut.