PADUCAH, Ky. — Storm-battered residents of several states hunkered down in frigid homes and shelters Thursday, expecting to spend at least a week without power and waiting in long lines to buy generators, firewood, groceries and bottled water.
Utility companies in Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Arkansas and West Virginia warned that the estimated 1.3 million people left in the dark by an ice storm wouldn’t have power back before Saturday at the earliest, and at worst, as late as mid-February.
Already, the situation was becoming dire for some communities in Kentucky, where the power outages crippled pumping stations and cut off access to water. Tracie and Jeff Augustinovich drove 15 miles from their home in the western Kentucky town of Rock Castle to buy groceries. Their home had very little running water, and though they stocked up before the storm, they weren’t sure their supplies will last.
“We’re buying up anything that we can eat cold,” Tracie Augustinovich said.
In Paducah, Amber Fiers and her neighbor Miranda Brittan tried a half-dozen filling stations before finding one where they could buy kerosene. The two were in a line that swelled to 50 or more at the 13th Street Station, which began pumping kerosene after its owner set up a generator.
“We got food, but I’m just worried about staying warm,” said, Brittan who lives in Mayfield, adding she was frustrated by the search for supplies.
“By the time you hear about a place that’s open they’re out when you get there,” she said.
Utility crews found themselves up against roads blocked by ice-caked power lines, downed trees and other debris. Help from around the country was arriving in convoys to assist the states with the worst outages. But with so many homes and businesses in the dark — there were more than 600,000 across Kentucky alone — the effort is still expected to take days, if not weeks.
At a mall turned into a staging area in Barboursville, W.Va., crews in hard hats met alongside piles of poles, generators, wire and other supplies to find out where to go first.
“We’re attacking it head on,” said Appalachian Power spokesman Phil Moye. “As long as the ice is still on the trees, the storm is still here.”
St. Louis-based AmerenUE said it had added 800 workers to its efforts to restore power in southeast Missouri, and another 800 were expected today.
“As we restore some, we’re losing others. The ice is just so treacherous,” said utility spokeswoman Susan Gallagher.
Federal officials are hauling truckloads of water, ready-to-eat meals and large generators to a staging area at Fort Campbell in southwestern Kentucky, said Mary Hudak, a spokeswoman for FEMA’s southeast region. The supplies are expected to arrive today.
Hundreds of shelters opened their doors, and deputies in some communities went door to door to let people know where they were. Since phone service and Internet connections are spotty in many places, there wasn’t another way. In Harrodsburg, Ky., where phone service was restored, residents were asked to call 911 if they needed transport to shelters, said John Trisler, the county’s judge executive.
In central Kentucky’s Radcliff, John and Elsie Grimes lost power Monday night and needed police help to get out of their trailer and to a shelter Thursday morning set up by the local NAACP.
“I’ve been sitting ‘round for two days, eating cold hot dogs and bologna,” said 70-year-old John Grimes, describing what he ate at home before coming to the shelter. He uses a wheelchair, is blind in one eye, and a diabetic.
Since the storm began Monday, the weather has been blamed for at least 27 deaths.
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