Thanks to Ron Smith, Kentucky Public Radio/WEKU, RichmondUtility crews continue to work to restore power to tens of thousands of eastern Kentucky residents left in the dark by a weekend winter storm.Heavy snow Saturday brought down numerous tree limbs and power lines in the region.Four Red Cross shelters have been set up in hard-hit Pike County, where officials say power may not be fully restored until Saturday.Robin Tackett with the Big Sandy Red Cross chapter says about 180 people have been staying at the shelters."It's really hard to leave your home when its the holiday season, especially with Christmas coming up and you don't want to spend it in a shelter situation if at all possible," Tackett said."People aren't wanting to leave their homes because you know all their gifts and things that they bought for Christmas are still at their homes and they're concerned that if they leave those homes that someone could break in and get those things."Officials are also on the lookout for price gouging of supplies and services in the wake of the storm.At the height of the outages Saturday, more than 100,000 customers were without power in the region.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.
