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KentuckyDeploys All Its Guardsmen

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The Associated Press

Published: February 1, 2009

MAYFIELD, Ky. - Gov. Steve Beshear, with his state still reeling after last week's deadly ice storm, deployed every one of his Army National Guardsmen on Saturday.

More than half a million homes and businesses, most of them in Kentucky, remained without electricity from the Ozarks through Appalachia. Finding fuel was another struggle for those trying to tough it out at home.

The call-up of 4,600 Guardsmen is the largest in Kentucky history. The storm cut power to more than 600,000 people, the state's largest outage on record.

"With the length of this disaster and what we're expecting to be a multi-day process here, we're concerned about the lives and the safety of our people in their own homes," Beshear said.

Thousands of people were staying in motels and shelters, asked to leave their homes by authorities who said emergency teams in some areas were too strapped to reach everyone in need of food, water and warmth. The outages disabled water systems, and authorities warned it could be days or weeks before power was restored in the most remote spots.

That uncertainty had many appealing for help and officials urging those in dark homes to leave.

The storm that began in the Midwest had been blamed or suspected in at least 42 deaths, including 11 in Kentucky, nine in Arkansas, and six each in Texas and Missouri. Most were blamed on hypothermia, traffic accidents and carbon monoxide poisoning.

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