Somerset —

Wednesday’s downright oppressive heat was followed by fearsome weather of another kind — damaging storms. Late Wednesday night into the early morning hours, the skies opened up and dumped a lake’s worth of water onto Pulaski County and the surrounding region. This was accompanied by a sky-brightening lightning storm and tremendous, constant thunder. “We started early this morning,” said acting Pul-aski County Road Super-visor Dennis Turner, about his department’s efforts to clear the county’s roads of debris. “They called and got us up and out before daylight.” The first round of storms would leave downed trees and power lines in its wake — but that wouldn’t be the end of Mother Nature’s wrath for Pulaski County. On Thursday, at around 2 p.m., another blast of stormy weather rolled into town. Once again, trees were brought to the ground and power lines downed, and electricity zapped for numerous local consumers. “We had eight to 10 blocked roads this afternoon,” Turner said. The city limits also saw a significant amount of damage from downed trees and other debris. Homes on South Central Avenue and Summit Avenue received significant damage due to large falling trees, and several city roadways were blocked by debris. Emergency responders were called to the south Pizza Hut Thursday afternoon after the high winds — estimated to be, at times, close to 60 mph — snapped a utility pole located beside South U.S. 27. Power outages constituted perhaps the most far-reaching of the weather’s consequences. After the storm in Thursday’s wee hours, approximately 750 South Kentucky RECC customers, who get their power from the rural energy co-op, were left without service in Pulaski, Wayne, Russell and McCreary Counties. SKRECC spokesperson Joy Bullock said that the outages were the result of winds and lightning, both of which caused trees to fall on lines and downed wires. Additionally, power poles were snapped and broken. SKRECC had just completed restoration of power outages caused by the overnight storm right about the same time the afternoon storm brewed in the skies. This second storm swept through the area, causing more outages. As of late Thursday afternoon, 2,028 members were without service in the aforementioned affected counties. At peak, 4,200 consumers did not have power. Crews, including contractors, were working on these outages into the evening and planned on remaining at work until restoration is completed, noted Bullock. She added that South Kentucky RECC appreciates everyone's patience during the outage situation. Kentucky Utilities — now associated with E.ON U.S. — also had power outage woes. Spokesperson Cliff Feltham said that 100 customers were knocked off-line in Somerset and Burnside after the second storm. “Most of the cause is lightning that struck and caused a short in its system,” said Feltham. “The system does what it’s supposed to when there’s lightning — it shuts down so it doesn’t burn anything up.” The lion’s share of those affected were in Burnside — 80 customers without power there — as part of a circuit at a substation there was knocked off by the storm. In Somerset, the problem was less severe, with only a handful of residential transformers being affected. Feltham said there were some outages after the early morning storm as well, “but they were scattered around the area, nothing of any large substance to speak of.” He expected it to take about two hours to clear up the problems, unless crews run into “something that has been burned up ... then it will take us a little bit longer.” With more storms likely on the way, according to weather reports, is there anything the electricity provider can do to prepare? Not really, said Feltham. “It’s just ‘take it as it comes.’ That’s the way we live when Mother Nature deals us a hand — we deal with whatever hand she deals.” John Pelton, with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said a combination of the last few days’ worth of high temperatures, moist atmosphere and an approaching cold front caused Thursday’s weather woes. “That combination produces a lot of instability,” Pelton said. Pelton said the heat index for Pulaski County came in at a dangerous 113 degrees Wednesday, adding that, at one point during the day Wednesday, every county in Kentucky reported indices at or higher than 100 degrees. “It’s been awhile since we’ve had heat indices quite that high,” Pelton said. The heat index combines the air temperature and relative humidity to determine how the temperature feels to the human body. Pelton stated the atmosphere’s instability had all but been absorbed, thanks to Thursday’s storms, and he said it should be smooth sailing in Pulaski County after a possibility for more storms on Thursday night. Temperatures are expected to be in the upper 80s today and on Saturday with mostly clear skies.