LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Helene has been carving a swath of damage from the Gulf Coast and along the east coast of the United States, but the impact of the hurricane is also felt here in Kentucky.

What You Need To Know

  • Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday evening

  • Ohio Task Force One is in central Florida, just north of Tampa, aiding with recovery efforts 

  • The task force is made up of 81 people, including nine Kentuckians and is prepared for many different kinds of emergencies

  • Kentucky Electric Cooperatives urge Kentuckians if you see a downed line to stay away, call 911 and  call your utility company

Ohio Task Force One leader Jack Reall has been dealing with disasters like Hurricane Helene for many years. Reall says this one was different. 

“Over the years, I’ve responded to a lot of different hurricanes. it’s this is a this is a very strong, fast-moving storm, with a lot of storm surge and the ability to create a lot of damage,” said Reall.

Ohio Task Force One is in central Florida, just north of Tampa. The task force is made up of 81 people, including nine Kentuckians.

“Able to handle all a range of issues, from water to structural collapse and positions to structural engineers to rescue specialist, you know, everything,” said Reall.

Reall says Hurricane Helene reminds him of another storm. 

“This is one of those storms, like, Isabel happened, years ago where it started down here in the Gulf, and it traveled all the way up through the Midwest. And, it’s kind of interesting because a lot of us obviously are from the Midwest. I’ve got a lot of Kentucky team members on my team and, you know, they’re down here respond to this disaster and at the same time, at home is getting, you know, getting hammered by the weather,” said Reall.

And Kentucky certainly felt the impacts of Helene, as high winds and heavy rains led to cancellations across the commonwealth and hundreds of thousands of power outages.

Vice President of Strategic Communications for Kentucky Electric Cooperatives Joe Arnold says the electrical infrastructure itself is outfitted to be able to handle these scales of winds. It’s the trees that can’t handle it.

“The whole tree will not just bring down the power lines, but snapped the poles that are attached to the power lines,” said Arnold.

Arnold says as soon as the outages began, crews were deployed, but the widespread weather emergency makes power repair that much more difficult.

“Almost everyone is affected by this, and so they’re going to have to delay some of those mutual aid responses because they have to take care of their own home co-op first. The good news is that the co-ops are fully staffed, fully equipped. They have what they need. What they face, though, is just a lot of different outages, a lot of different problems that need to be repaired.” said Arnold.

Both Arnold and Reall say that the restoration from Hurricane Helene’s impact will take time to recover. 

“We have almost every team in our system across the nation is deployed to this storm and some in some manner, either, in North Carolina or Georgia on, Tennessee or here in Florida there. It’s just amazing how widespread this storm has impacted the nation,” said Reall.

Kentucky Electric Cooperatives urge Kentuckians if you see a downed line to stay away, call 911 and call your utility company. Make sure they’re aware of that and for those who still have power, be prepared by constantly charging your phones, have your prescriptions handy, a flashlight with batteries, as well as a weather radio.

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