1.3 million lack power, possibly for weeks

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 said 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.

The situation already was 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 had stocked up before the storm, they weren’t sure their supplies would last.

“We’re buying up anything that we can eat cold,” Tracie Augustinovich 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.

Since the storm began Monday, the weather has been linked to at least 27 deaths, including six in Texas, four in Arkansas, three in Virginia, six in Missouri, two in Oklahoma, two in Indiana, two in West Virginia and one each in Ohio and Kentucky. Emergency officials feared that toll could rise because improper use of generators can cause carbon monoxide poisoning.