Cold Comfort For Powerless

Hundreds Of Thousands Still Without Power After Last Week's Storm

(CBS)  More than half of Franklinton, North Carolina's 1,800 residents, many of them elderly, remain without power five days after an ice storm glazed the state.

For thousands of shivering and miserable North Carolinians, thermal socks and plenty of blankets are the only way to stay warm, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Krasula. Many, like Phyllis Beckley have been without power for nearly a week and are making the best of a tough situation.

"Everybody in our family just bundled up and got a lot of blankets, lit the gas stove, and just tried to do our best," she said.

Utility crews hope to have most of the power restored by late Wednesday night, but faced with the prospect of spending a sixth frigid night without power, many North Carolina residents are losing patience. Exhausted utility workers are pleading for understanding, saying they are doing the best they can. In some cases, temporary roads must be built just so power crews can get to damaged utility poles.

Power crews from 15 states are working 16-hour shifts in the massive effort.

Some Franklinton residents said they had been ignored because of a utility policy that gives priority to lines that serve the most people. Carolina Power & Light spokeswoman Julie Hans said that some long lines coming into the town are down and are taking more time to repair.

"We've had it bad," said Devero Martin, 74, a blind, retired Army colonel. "Look at all the clothes I have on. It's everything I have."

Martin and his 73-year-old wife, Mildred, shivered as they came out to their carport to check on a generator that a friend loaned them Monday to run their furnace.

Until then, they had gotten by on a small heater hooked to an extension cord from a nearby building that had power after most of the area lost it in last Wednesday's ice storm.

"You should see the covers we've had to sleep under," Mildred Martin said. "Everything in the refrigerator and freezer is soft and soggy."

Problems such as those faced by the Martins and other state residents caused Gov. Mike Easley to ask for a federal disaster declaration for the 35 hardest-hit counties and a lower level of help for those bordering the 35 counties.

In addition, U.S. Sen. John Edwards sent a letter asking President Bush to speed disaster assistance to the state.

Losses suffered by the state's customer-owned electric cooperatives alone exceed the threshold needed to pursue a federal disaster application. Jane Pritchard, a spokeswoman for the state's electric cooperatives, said preliminary figures estimate damage costs of $14 million or more.

Franklinton administrator Mike Morton said late Monday that the utility hadn't told the town what to expect.

"I wish there was something we could do," he said. "People are really starting to get angry here."

Morton and other officials from five counties and several towns met in Louisburg where state and federal emergency management officials told them to get damage estimates done as quickly as possible.

Hans acknowledged that in rural areas it takes the same effort to restore a few customers as it does to restore hundreds in a city like Raleigh.

"That's the most efficient way to restore power, to work on the lines that are going to get the most number of customers restored in the quickest amount of time."

By 5 p.m., utility crews were working on a severely damaged substation outside of the town. The lines feeding the substation wouldn't hold electricity despite several attempts, Hans said, meaning there was a break somewhere in the line.

She said there were scores of line crews in the county and that as many as 60 spans of cable were down in the town and had to be fixed.

More than 2 million people in the Carolinas were without power after last week's ice storm. By late Monday, utilities said that number was down to about 456,000.

It's been a taste of pioneer days for William Martin. Without electricity since last Wednesday, he's been using a wood stove for heat and cooking.

"We can cook on that insert that's got a little place not that wide in front, where you can boil water and fry eggs," he said.

Martin said he is tired of splitting and hauling firewood, but said he has no other choice until his electricity comes back on.

Duke Power, which supplies electricity for most of the state between Durham and the Tennessee border, said it will take it until midnight Wednesday before it can restore power to most of its 337,000 North Carolina customers and 24,520 South Carolina customers still without electricity.

CP&L, which serves most of the state east of Durham, was trying to return power to about 88,000 customers. The state's electric cooperatives reported about 7,035 without power Monday.