By Angela Hatton
Murray, KY – Remnants of Hurricane Ike brought down power lines and tree limbs in a broad swath up the Ohio Valley, hitting Kentucky hard. Louisville Gas and Electric officials say this weekend's wind storm has caused the worst power outage in the area's history. More than 230-thousand L-G-and-E customers are without service, and power company officials say it could be TEN to FOURTEEN days before power is restored. In Western Kentucky, Crittenden County Judge Executive Fred Brown says many people were without electricity and water yesterday after county's water supplier lost power. Brown says winds reached as high as 65 miles per hour in his region, nearing category 1 hurricane levels. Kentucky Utilities is continuing to get power back online in Crittenden, but Brown says if power isn't back up by tonight, they will begin moving residents to disaster shelters. Jackson Purchase Energy Corporation has brought over half its 15,000 customers who lost power back online. JPEC Spokesman J. Patrick Kerr says ten additional crews have been called in from Middle Tennessee to assist with the efforts. Paducah Power Systems Spokeswoman Andrea Underwood says yesterday's damage in McCracken County was comparable to February's ice storms. Sixty-five percent of PPS's twenty-three thousand customers were without power. Today, the company has restored power to all but 500 of those outages. Hickman-Fulton Counties Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation manager Gregg Grissom says it could be three or four days before all power is restored in the westernmost counties of Kentucky. In the Pennyrile region, Emergency Management Director Matt Snorton says Christian County received relatively little damage. He says the wind storm has been hard to assess because unlike a tornado which is targeted, the damage has been widespread.