From June 11 to 14, winds reaching up to 165 mph swept across the region, leaving a trail of destruction across KV REMC’s service territory and knocking out power to more than 10,000 members.

As soon as conditions were safe on Thursday evening, KV REMC crews began assessing damage and making repairs. All available employees of our operations team, including the line crew, supervisors, and engineers worked to restore power and rebuild damaged infrastructure. During that time, crews drove 4,863 miles assessing damage, delivering materials, and completing repairs. Their rapid response, supported by neighboring cooperatives and contractors, helped return power to nearly all affected members within days despite the severity of the storm.

In the early hours of Friday morning, KV REMC also lost internet service for approximately three hours, requiring employees to coordinate crews and manage outages without the technology we had become so reliant on.

Keeping members informed remained a priority throughout the restoration process. KV REMC received 3,324 outage reports through its Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, while many additional outages were reported through SmartHub. Information provided through the IVR system and SmartHub, such as wires down or a tree on the line, helps us find the problem more quickly.

For KV REMC crews, restoring power is more than a job. They take pride in serving the membership and understand the role they play in helping families return to normal after difficult circumstances. Just as communities come together after a disaster, the cooperative model reminds us that no one faces challenges alone. Working together, power was restored to all affected members by Saturday night.