State officials monitor Hurricane Sandy effects, prepare for power outages, snowfalls

The Commonwealth Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) remains activated in response to Hurricane Sandy, which devastated regions of the East Coast of the United States.
 

The storm made landfall Monday. Hurricane Sandy was downgraded to a tropical storm overnight as it moved inland, causing millions of power outages, storm surges, fires, heavy snows and damaging winds. Several deaths are attributed to the storm, and damages will be significant.
 

(Images from AccuWeather.com)

At this time, Kentucky Emergency Management (KYEM) has received no local requests for state assistance. The agency has no missions pending for other impacted states. KYEM will continue emergency operations, and the CEOC will remain active at Level II until further notice.
 

KYEM officials began monitoring the storm late last week, along with officials from the National Weather Service (NWS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), state and local agencies and elected officials.
 

As the hurricane collided with a major cold front moving south from Canada, snow and blizzard conditions impacted states to the east of Kentucky.
 

Winter Storm Warnings and Watches remain in effect for counties in eastern Kentucky. Wet snow began falling late yesterday afternoon in higher elevations and is expected to continue throughout today and tonight. Snow accumulations could be 6 to 12 inches, with some mountain areas receiving as much as 2 feet. Black Mountain reported more than a foot of snow accumulated overnight; Pine Mountain reported 5.5 inches, and Leatherwood Mountain reported 3 inches.
 

Gusty winds will accompany this snowfall with gusts up to 40 mph below 2,000 feet elevation and over 50 mph over 2,000 feet elevation. Sustained winds coupled with heavy, wet snow will likely topple trees and cause power outages.
 

Along with power outages, the largest threat Kentucky could face from this storm is localized flooding and transportation issues.
 

Road conditions throughout Kentucky can be found at 511.ky.gov.
 

Weather forecasts and warnings issued by NWS can be found at weather.gov.
 

Weather safety tips can be found at kyem.ky.gov.
 

From Kentucky Division of Emergency Management, Images from

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