PIKEVILLE, KY – The Pike County Fiscal Court passed a motion during its Jan. 15 meeting authorizing assistant county attorney Roland Case to prepare a lawsuit against American Electric Power.

“We have to do whatever we can to protect our people,” Judge-Executive Wayne T. Rutherford said. “It was taxpayers’ money that was spent just to ensure people survived during the power outage and, in my opinion, it could have been prevented.”

However, District Six Magistrate Chris Harris said he felt the court may be better served by waiting to initiate legal action. Harris passed on the vote, citing that the Public Service Commission is currently conducting an investigation into how AEP could have prevented the outages.

“I think it is premature to begin a lawsuit until the PSC is finished with their investigation,” Harris said.

Pike County suffered widespread power outages totaling 35,000 people, many of which were without power for 10 days, including throughout the Christmas holiday. Rutherford cited AEP’s neglect to clear rights of way as the foremost reason snapped tree limbs caused power lines to collapse.

Pike County government spent tens of thousands of dollars to supply food, kerosene and generators to those without power, and many people’s food ruined as a result of the outage.