The ice storm that raged through Southeast Missouri earlier in the week left more than 88,000 still without power throughout the region Friday as utility workers struggled to keep up with new outages caused by rapidly melting ice.

By Friday afternoon, Gov. Jay Nixon had announced President Obama had approved a gubernatorial request for an official disaster declaration for Missouri, according to a news release from Nixon's office. In addition to the widespread power loss, the storm caused the deaths of six people in Missouri, the news release said.

Obama signed the declaration shortly after a telephone conversation with Nixon, according to a news release from the White House.

The declaration authorizes Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to use federal resources in coordinating a relief effort for Missouri and alleviating the damage from the storm.

Direct federal assistance will be provided at 75 percent federal funding, the news release said.

A utility pole bends under the weight of ice Friday along Route JJ near Charleston, Mo.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Dianne Kelly, a dispatcher with the Mississippi County Sheriff's Department.

Kelly had braved winter weather before when she lived in Chicago before moving to Mississippi County 10 years ago, but this week's winter squall was outside anything she'd experienced, she said.

"We knew this storm was coming, but people got caught with their pants down," Kelly said.

AmerenUE still had more than 26,068 Missouri customers without power Friday night. AmerenUE managed to restore power to more than 870 customers in Mississippi County on Friday, but as of 7:30 p.m. Friday, there were still 4,380 without electricity. SEMO Electric Cooperative had 1,338 outages in Mississippi County as of Friday night, according to Glenn Cantrell, spokesman for SEMO Electric.

Ozark Border Electric had 4,737 Mississippi County customers without power Friday evening, which is 90 percent of its customers in that county, said Stanley Estes, spokesman for Ozark Border.

The situation in Mississippi County mirrored other counties in the Bootheel.

However, fewer than 1 percent of Cape Girardeau County customers of AmerenUE and 164 customers of SEMO Electric were still without power loss of Friday night.

In Scott County, power was restored to 2,151 Ameren customers by Friday night, with 3,410 still without electricity.

Ameren had 3,500 workers handling outage repairs Friday but warned that the outages could persist for an extended period, according to a news release from Ameren.

There were 3,224 customers of SEMO Electric in Scott County without power, 3,900 in Stoddard County, and 1,053 in Stoddard County, Cantrell said Friday evening.

"It's been little victories, but little setbacks, too," Cantrell said.

While higher temperatures Friday meant the majority of ice clinging to power lines melted, it also caused numerous problems for utility workers as they tried to repair outages throughout the day.

Utility trucks have gotten stuck in deep mud, and the falling ice has caused lines to "bounce" off poles, causing additional outages, Cantrell said.

"Conditions are terrible," Estes said.

Around noon Friday, Ozark Border lost 14 of its substations because of problems caused by the melting ice.

All but two substations were repaired and running by Friday evening, but between 6,000 and 8,000 Ozark Border customers were still without power, Estes said.

Estes said the utility company hoped to have power restored to 90 percent of its customers by Sunday but admitted that the remaining 10 percent of outages would be extremely difficult to repair.

"We're going to have to be really creative in getting those substations back up," Estes said.

In Southern Illinois, Ameren still had 996 customers without power.

Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative had about 6,000 outages at the start of the day Friday, according to Jerri Schaefer, spokeswoman for Southern Illinois Electric.

"The melting ice is interfering with newly fixed lines," Schaefer said.

In some cases Friday, customers who had their power restored two days ago lost it all over again.

In Sikeston, Mo., power went completely out on two separate occasions Friday, said Wayne McSpadden, operations manager for the Sikeston Board of Municipal Utilities.

Falling ice at times took down newly fixed lines or shattered insulators, McSpadden said.

As of Friday afternoon, 85 percent of Sikeston residents were still without power, he said.

Photo editor Kit Doyle and reporter Brian Blackwell contributed to this report.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

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