Power restored in Berea after city-wide outage

BEREA, Ky. (WKYT) - A lot of folks in several communities lost power Monday afternoon.

From Berea to Paint Lick and over to Kirksville, thousands lost their power just before 11:00 Monday morning.

“Power flickered about 11, and then I noticed one of the fans running about half speed. I knew something wasn’t right about that time,” Conn Wilson said.

Wilson is among the 350 or so from western Madison County to Paint Lick, over to Kirksville who lost power.

It was on a Kentucky Utilities transmission line and the Berea mayor says it was located between Berea and Richmond. More than 5,000 lost power in Berea alone.

It turned busy intersections dark, shut down gasoline pumps, and left stores closed. Power was restored just before 2:00 p.m.

Wilson runs an auto service shop and without electricity, there was not much work he could do.

“We run air tools, air compressors, things like that. Of course I can’t run my lift, to get cars up and down in the air, so yeah it has kind of shut me down here,” Wilson said.

A spokesperson for Kentucky Utilities said East Kentucky Power did provide some help in flipping the switch to restore power. Once that switch is pulled back the other way they do not anticipate another outage.

A KU spokesperson says the cause of the outage is still under investigation.