Beshear is declaring a state of emergency as the statewide ice storm causes a number of outages and road closures. According to Beshear, declaring a state of emergency will free up funding for the response to the weather crisis.
The governor explained the state of emergency will direct the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management and the Department of Military Affairs to execute the Kentucky Emergency Operations Plan.
The state’s emergency management has been made aware of 70,500 Kentucky customers with outages.
“We again remind Kentuckians that icing has and continues to cause downed power lines and power
outages,” Beshear said. “We still have a ways to go before we defeat this storm. If possible, prepare for the need to use an alternative source.”
Although the severe storm has caused multiple crashes and intermittent closures, Beshear said road conditions are better than expected. According to the governor, transportation crew’s snow plows and salt trucks have been prepping the roads since yesterday evening.
“Since last night and continuing into this morning, transportation crews have aggressively treated roads throughout the night as the weather allowed,” Beshear said.
Secretary of the Transportation Cabinet and Director of Vaccine Distribution Jim Gray reported a number of interstates and parkways have been blocked by “downed trees, power lines and stranded jackknifed vehicles.” According to Gray, eastbound lanes on Interstate-24 in Christian County are still closed.
“Our crews are working quickly and are working very deliberately, so they can keep open these high priority routes,” Gray said. “The expectation is that this is going to be a prolonged event. So over the weekend, we may get more trouble spots.”
Those wanting to know traffic updates and priority route maps may visit snow.ky.gov.
Beshear reminded Kentuckians with COVID-19 vaccination appointments to check in with their vaccination sites to reschedule as needed.
“If you have an appointment scheduled for today or even Friday, keep a close eye on your email or voicemail so that you can get important notifications,” he added.
The governor said he will be announcing significant additional places to get vaccinated across the commonwealth.
