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[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

I think we have one list member from Kentucky, article also mentions other 
states.  From this am NYT

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Ice-Battered Kentucky Pleads for Help From Storm 


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 31, 2009 
Filed at 8:08 a.m. ET

MARION, Ky. (AP) -- A crippling winter storm has plunged about a million 
customers into the dark from the Midwest to the East Coast, and thousands of 
people in ice-caked Kentucky have sought refuge in motels and shelters.

Dozens of deaths have been reported and many people are pleading for a faster 
response to the power outages. Some in rural Kentucky ran short of food and 
bottled water, and resorted to dipping buckets in a creek.

Thousands fled frigid, powerless homes for hotels and even a heated 
auditorium at Murray State University that was converted into a shelter 
following Monday's storm that left some areas in up to 1 inch ice.

Utility workers hoped to speed up efforts Saturday to turn the lights back 
on. Still, rural communities feared it could be days or even weeks before 
workers got to areas littered with downed power lines.

Temperatures were expected to rise just above freezing Saturday for the first 
time in days.

At least 42 people have died in the icy arc of destruction that began in the 
Midwest. At least nine deaths were reported in Arkansas, six each in Texas 
and Missouri, three in Virginia, two each in Oklahoma, Indiana and West 
Virginia and one in Ohio. Most were blamed on hypothermia, traffic accidents 
and carbon monoxide poisoning from generators.

In Kentucky, where 11 people had died, a man and two women were the latest 
victims after they were found dead in a southwestern Louisville home. One 
woman was found in a bed; the other two were found in the garage with a 
generator, police spokesman Phil Russell said.

Meanwhile, the uncertainty of when power might be restored had many appealing 
for help. Officials urged those in dark homes to leave.

''We're asking people to pack a suitcase and head south and find a motel if 
they have the means, because we can't service everybody in our shelter,'' 
said Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown, who oversees about 9,000 
people, many of whom spent a fifth night sleeping in the town's elementary 
school.

Local officials grew angrier at what they said was a lack of help from the 
state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In Kentucky's Grayson County, about 80 miles southwest of Louisville, 
Emergency Management Director Randell Smith said the 25 National Guardsmen 
who have responded have no chain saws to clear fallen trees. He said roads 
are littered with fallen trees and people shivering in bone-chilling cold are 
in need.

''We've got people out in some areas we haven't even visited yet,'' Smith 
said. ''We don't even know that they're alive.''

Smith said FEMA was still a no-show days after the storm.

''I'm not saying we can't handle it,'' Smith said. ''We're handling it. But 
it sure would have made life a lot easier.''

FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak said some agency workers had begun working Friday 
in Kentucky and more help was on the way. Hudak said FEMA also has shipped 50 
to 100 generators to the state to supply electricity to such facilities as 
hospitals, nursing homes and water treatment plants.

''We have plenty of folks ready to go, but there are some limitations with 
roads closed and icy conditions,'' she noted.

>From Missouri to Ohio, thousands were waiting in shelters for the power to 
>return. Others were trying to tough it out at home.

In Poplar Bluff, Mo., a man used a barbecue grill inside to cook and keep 
warm, deputy police chief Jeff Rolland said.

''Luckily, one of our volunteers was in a position to see what he was doing 
and inform him of the carbon monoxide dangers of using a charcoal grill 
inside a residence,'' Rolland said.

President Barack Obama on Friday declared a federal emergency for Missouri, 
making the state eligible for federal funds even as power outages lingered in 
much of the southern portion of the state.

In Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear said crews were working around the clock to 
restore power and get food and water to needed areas. Beshear said state 
government would ''spare no expense'' in recovery efforts.

''We are pulling out all the stops, using all of our resources and devoting 
our entire energy to this emergency and we will continue to do so until the 
last home has power, the last road is cleared and the last family is safe,'' 
Beshear said.

Beshear said 200,000 customers were without water or under an advisory to 
boil their water Friday night.

''By the end of this weekend, we hope to have generators at a majority of the 
water plants,'' he said. ''In the meantime, we are trucking bottled water 
into every place we know that needs it, so no one should be without drinking 
water over the weekend.''

Laura Howe, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, said the organization 
had opened more than 34 shelters for some 2,000 people.

Doris Hemingway, 78, spent three days bundled in blankets to ward off the 
cold in her Leitchfield mobile home. News that it could take up to six weeks 
for power to be restored sent Hemingway and his husband, Bill, into a shelter 
at a local high school.

''I'd pray awhile and I'd cry awhile,'' Doris Hemingway said. ''It's the 
worst I've ever seen.''

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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/01/31/us/AP-Winter-Storm.html