WINCHESTER, Ky. (LEX 18) — Thousands of Kentucky households lost power when an ice storm barreled through the state earlier in the week.
In Clark County, hundreds of families are still waiting for power to be restored.
When Jade and Andy Novian lost power on Thursday, they were prepared to stay home.
“We set up a tent in our living room to try to conserve space, we piled on blankets and brought our pets in there,” Jade Novian said.
The couple stayed warm the first night, but they’ve now been three days without power or any way to heat the inside of the house.
“It’s kind of an icebox in there now,” Novian said.
Novian said when the conditions became too cold for their pets to be comfortable, they decided to find a hotel room.
On Sunday, the Novians returned home to check on the house. Power had not been restored yet, but crews were working on the powerlines around them.
“They’re working as fast and as safe as they can and that’s really all that matters,” Andy Novian said.
Down the road from the Novian household, Laura Freeman and her husband are keeping the house warm using their gas fireplace while they wait for power to come back.
“We’re surviving,” Freeman said. “We sort of have been through this before. We have water, we have coffee, we have water from a horse tank to flush the toilets.”
Freeman is no stranger to icy conditions. She said in 2008, her family lost power for six days. After that, they bought a generator and stocked up on supplies.
Freeman said she’s not worried about hunkering down for the upcoming winter storm. They have supplies. However, as the snow piles on, it’ll be more challenging caring for her cattle farm.
“The snow on top of the ice could be bad,” Freeman said.
Nearly 10,000 households lost power because of the ice storm in the Clark Energy Cooperative coverage area, according to the company.
Workers have been called in from surrounding counties to help restore power across the area as quickly as possible.
In a Facebook update, the company said progress has been “slow” because crews have faced various obstacles while working to restore power, including a fallen tree that brought down a power line crews had previously rebuilt.
