About 17,000 Northern Kentucky customers, including families in Florence, Union, Burlington and Hebron, remained without electricity as of Aug. 12, as Duke Energy crews worked to repair damage from storms that struck Aug. 11.
The utility restored power to more than 171,000 customers across Greater Cincinnati in the 24 hours after the storms hit, according to the NKY Tribune, citing Duke Energy's update. But thousands of Boone County households still had no power heading into a second night.
The biggest development for those still waiting: Duke Energy began posting estimated restoration times on its Outage Map at 7 p.m. Aug. 12. As we reported earlier that day, no timeline had been available, leaving residents guessing when their lights would return.
Andy Cassidy, Duke Energy's storm director, said in the company's Aug. 12 update that crews had made significant progress under extremely challenging conditions but still faced substantial work ahead. More than 1,000 additional lineworkers, tree trimmers, damage assessors and support personnel from outside Ohio and Kentucky were deployed to assist local crews already working around the clock.
The count keeps dropping. Roughly 26,000 NKY customers lost power Tuesday night, more than 20,000 remained out Wednesday morning and 17,000 were still dark as of 4 p.m. Aug. 12. At its regional peak, more than 180,000 Duke Energy customers lost service, about 20 percent of the utility's Ohio and Kentucky customer base.
John Juech, Duke Energy's director of communications, told WLWT on Aug. 12 that Tuesday's storms were "the highest count of outages and dispersion of damage I've seen across this region in my time at Duke." He called it a "high-vegetation event," meaning trees fell on power lines and transmission lines, forcing crews to clear debris before rebuilding each line.
Duke Energy said some outages, particularly those involving broken poles, downed lines or significant equipment damage, may take longer to repair. The company prioritizes restoring facilities that support public health and safety, such as hospitals and government buildings, before moving into residential neighborhoods.
Damage assessments remained ongoing as of Wednesday afternoon. As workers gain access to damaged infrastructure, restoration estimates will continue to be updated on the Outage Map.
How to check your status and report outages:
- Visit Duke Energy's Outage Map at outagemaps.duke-energy.com for estimated restoration times.
- Call Duke Energy Ohio/Kentucky at 800-543-5599 or text "OUT" to 57801 to report an outage.
- Text "REG" to 57801 or visit duke-energy.com/outagealerts to sign up for outage alerts.
- Treat intersections with non-working traffic signals as four-way stops.
