Some Kentuckians still lack electric power after storms last Friday, but that number is getting smaller as of late this afternoon.

1600 electric customers were still without electricity.

That's down from more than 400,000 right after the storms.

Crews from 11 states are helping to restore power in Kentucky.

Our Kelsi Starks has more on that effort and the dangers still out there.

Friday's historic windstorm snapped more than a thousand utility poles, although many people may have their power restored.

Now, there are still some dangers out there.

And Joe Arnold is from the Kentucky Electric Cooperatives to tell us all about that.

So power returns.

Everybody's trying to get back to normal here, but there still are a lot of risks out there.

What are those?

Yeah, it's a great point, Kelsey, But that was those hurricane force winds.

Not only snapped the poles that the brought power down, but also snapped or broke some poles that are still standing.

So they're splintered.

And the concern there is that even though the power has been restored, you could actually have some broken poles still out.

And all across Kentucky right now that still need to be repaired.

So if you have one on your property or in one in your area, it's a good idea to go out and call your co-op, make sure they're aware of that, because that's going to be the work's going to go on at this point.

A lot of the maintenance work anyway, every pole will be inspected and check to make sure it's sound.

And we are seeing all of those linemen and the crews out.

A lot of people may not realize how cooperative this co-op really is.

And it's not just across Kentucky.

We get help and help neighboring states, too.

How does it all work?

So we have 24 local distribution cooperatives in Kentucky.

And at some point or another, all of them have sent crews to other states.

I have two hurricanes as the biggest example of that.

What's really has been moving for us during this whole process where the co-ops, we had to reach farther out than usual because the ones the co-ops in the states that are right on the border of Kentucky were also affected by this storm.

Tennessee, for instance, in Ohio, had a more difficult time sending crews in to help right across the border.

We had to cast a wider net to Florida and Louisiana, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, missing some because we came in from 11 different states, more than 60 individual co-ops sending in these crews.

But they even remarked on their social media and in person saying, you guys came and helped us after Hurricane Ida.

Now we're here to help you.

And it really is moving because they're working 16 hour shifts.

They're going away from their families.

And it's something which we've done in the past to help after hurricanes.

What's great about this, though, is they're all trained in the cooperative world on the same equipment and on the same standards.

So when they come in, they're ready to go on our one.

Yeah, that's that's pretty cool.

So looking back now, how do you think the restoration efforts did or are there any ways you all are looking to improve or pinpointing vulnerabilities?

I appreciate the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet actually put something out yesterday talking about comparing the you know, the outages are fairly comparable to what we saw back during the ice storm and Hurricane Ike in 2009 and the restoration times are appreciably faster.

We've basically gotten done what took maybe three or four weeks ten years ago or 15 years ago in about one week now for those people who were without power, we know it was maddening.

We know it was costly.

We know you had to find a place for your children and your elderly parents and for and to throw away food.

So I'm not minimizing at all the the suffering that has gone on throughout the state.

But the response, especially thanks to our mutual aid crews and the contractors and there's very long hours, was fairly efficient considering the fact of how widespread the damage was.

Every co-op in Kentucky was damaged, which is saying something.

Usually like and again, not to minimize a tornado, but that's usually a swath, right?

It's a path.

And people can kind of come in and help in that area.

Every territory, every area being affected meant we had to do a lot more work to get help from the outside.

Wow.

Well, thank you all for everything you do.

And we appreciate the crews that are out there.

More than a thousand a few remaining without power in Kentucky.

And some of those restoration efforts are still ongoing.

Could be back by the end of the week.

But if you're one on your block and the rest of your block has been restored, it may be a problem with your own equipment.

So you should check with your own utility about that.

Thank you, Kelsey.

As you heard, crews from more than 60 sister co-ops across 11 different states traveled to help Kentuckians get power restored.