Ice Storm

The Kentucky Service Commission wants to know how utility companies performed during the ice storm which left as many as 700,000 homes and businesses with out power in February. The commission is seeking feedback from utility customers affected by the ice storm, which along with wind damage from Hurricane Ike, caused the two worst power outages in Kentucky's history. There are several ways to provide the feedback. An online survey is available on the PSC Web site at psc.ky.

Although little money has trickled in thus far, Boyle County Fiscal Court heard optimistic projections Tuesday about the FEMA relief funds for six ice storm related projects now working their way through Frankfort. Deputy Emergency Management Director Rusty Cox reported the county would receive over $376,000 in money requested to reimburse debris clean-up expenses without paying another cent. FEMA originally agreed to pay 75 percent of the cost for approved projects, with the state and county paying 13 percent and 12 percent respectively.

Dear Editor: I am writing this letter in response to a letter published in last week's Interior Journal. I am an employee of the Lincoln County Fiscal Court. As such, I want to clarify that the Lincoln County judge-executive's office was the ONLY office in the courthouse open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during the ice storm and following days of no power. I, and others in our office, were without power and water but continued to come to work so that we could try to assist the rest of the county.

Jessamine County received much-needed assistance from the federal and state governments with clean up and other costs incurred in the wake of the January ice storm. Damages in the city and county exceeded $1 million, according to Kelly Woolums, administrative assistant to the Jessamine County Fiscal Court. "Our FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) rep, Dave Kitzman, is working on the last part of our request, which is the debris cost," she said. "It's going to be way over a million dollars.

During the recent ice storm, public service agencies across Clark County had to work under extreme conditions, with many forced to move their operations to alternate locations to provide service. The Clark County Health Department was one of those, but even though it was without electricity for several days, it was still able to provide the services that its clients have come to rely on. Sun reporter Bob Flynn sat down with Public Health Director Scott Lockard and discussed how his department coped, and what it learned from the experience.

Through the darkest, coldest and loneliest hours of last week's ice storm, many residents of Boyle County and nearby counties sought comfort from the friendly, helpful voices of local radio. The staff of Z-105 WRNZ, Hometown Radio in Danville and Lancaster, sacrificed sleep, meals and family time to keep citizens informed of where to find help, how to help, and what to watch out for. Robert Wagner, general manager for the station, said nothing could have prepared the staff for the experience.

January's ice storm provided a stunning reminder that the natural world, even when it is meticulously arranged, can be as treacherous as it is beautiful. As power was restored and the crisis situation subsided, new questions emerged about what had changed and what happens now. With massive cleanup efforts continuing to consume citizens and - in select cases - state hired crews, it is already clear that treescapes will never be quite the same. The storm exposed a tension between the unpredictability of nature and attempts to bring order to it. People are now faced with quandaries about whether to raze or prune, re-plant redbuds or opt for an oak. The ravages of the storm also revealed on a massive scale the personal and historical connections people feel to their trees.

After the daunting task of storm cleanup, homeowners and landscape managers need to turn their focus toward replacing trees and shrubs lost or damaged in the ice storm. The best thing you can do is think local when choosing where to go and what to buy. Kentucky has more than 1,200 nurseries and retailers selling hundreds of types of trees, shrubs, groundcovers and perennials. With 120 counties of resources, plant buyers can just about be guaranteed to find a way to buy locally without having to drive very far. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture sponsors the Kentucky Proud program, which allows individuals to locate local retail garden centers that market Kentucky-grown trees and shrubs to homeowners.

Much of the area road crews' hard work salting the roads got washed away as the rain negated much of the ice covering Clark County. Area schools and businesses began closing at noon Thursday as the ice storm moved across Kentucky with freezing rain and ice. The rain is expected to continue today, keeping the roads passable. "We salted all night long until about 5 a.m. when the rain arrived and washed all our hard work away, but it washed the ice away too," Clark County Road Supervisor Kevin Wilson said.

Somewhere in the FEMA pipeline, there's nearly $2.5 million destined to be delivered to area governments as payback for the money they spent dealing with January's ice storm. When all of those reimbursement funds will find their way into local coffers is not known - it could take another year or more - but the first trickle of that FEMA money should be flowing into the area in the form of electronic deposits any day now. "Projects that have had their final reviews should be receiving money within the next two to three weeks," said Stephanie Robey, an internal policy analyst for Kentucky Emergency Management, which is doling out the FEMA funds to local governments.