CANEYVILLE, Ky. — Thousands of National Guard troops swinging chain saws cut their way into remote communities Sunday to reach residents stranded by a deadly ice storm, freeing some to get out of their driveways for the first time in nearly a week.
The soldiers went door-to- door handing out rations of chili and beef stew to people cooped up in their powerless homes as authorities ratcheted up the relief effort for what Gov. Steve Beshear called the biggest natural disaster ever to hit the state.
The sight of Humvees rolling up one street in rural Grayson County, about 90 miles southwest of Louisville, sent children bouncing off the walls inside the generator-powered house where Bryan Bowling and 18 other people have been hunkering down by a fireplace.
“The kids were looking out the windows and yelling, ‘Yay! We’re saved!’ ” said Bowling, 30, who has a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old. “It’s just good to know that people care.”
Kentucky was hit hardest by the ice storm that paralyzed areas from the Ozarks through Appalachia early last week. Officials blamed or suspected the storm in at least 42 deaths nationwide, most from hypothermia, traffic accidents or carbon monoxide poisoning from improperly installed generators or charcoal grills used indoors.
The storm knocked out power to 1.3 million customers from the Southern Plains to the East Coast, more than 700,000 of them in Kentucky.
By Sunday, the figure had dropped to 400,000 in Kentucky, with scattered outages in other states.
The 4,600 soldiers Beshear ordered on duty, including his entire Army National Guard, swept through the state distributing food and water and checking houses.
