Ice storm cuts electricity to 1.3 million and kills 23

More than a million people shivered in ice-bound homes across the country Wednesday, waiting for utility crews to repair power lines brought down by a storm that killed 23 people from the Southern Plains to the East Coast.

But with temperatures plunging, utility officials warned that some of the hardest-hit areas might not have electricity restored until mid-February.

The worst of the power failures were in Kentucky, Arkansas and Ohio.

Getting to the downed lines was complicated with ice-encrusted tree limbs and power lines blocking the glazed roads. The sound of cracking limbs pierced the air like popping gunfire.

On Wednesday night, President Obama declared federal emergencies in Arkansas and Kentucky, clearing the way for the two states to receive federal aid.

In Kentucky, National Guard troops were dispatched to remove the debris. Oklahoma, already struggling to restore power, planned to send crews to help in Arkansas later in the week.

“It looks like a tornado came through, but there wasn’t a path -- it was everywhere,” said Mel Coleman, chief executive of the North Arkansas Electric Cooperative in Salem. The power is out at his house too, and he spent Tuesday night in a chair at his office.

The storm was “worse than we ever imagined,” he said.

In Arkansas -- where ice was 3 inches thick in some places -- people huddled next to fireplaces, wood stoves and portable heaters powered by generators. When it got too cold, they left for shelters or relatives’ homes that weren’t hit as badly.

“We bundled up together on a bed with four blankets. It’s freezing,” said Pearl Schmidt of Paintsville, Ky. In the morning, she and her family left home for a shelter.

Kyle Brashears’ family rode out the storm in their Mountain Home, Ark., home before fleeing to relatives after half an ice-caked oak tree fell onto their house.

“It caved the roof in and ripped the gutter off, although it didn’t penetrate inside,” he said. “I was walking around outside until about 1 a.m. and it was just a nonstop medley of tree limbs cracking off.”

The number of homes and businesses without power totaled about 1.3 million Wednesday evening, in a swath of states from Oklahoma to West Virginia.