Midwest also sees long lines for Ike relief

updated 12:04 p.m. ET Sept. 17, 2008

CINCINNATI - Facing a third straight day without power, residents across the Midwest snapped up batteries, generators and coolers as they waited for crews to restore electricity knocked out by the remnants of Hurricane Ike.

In other parts of the Midwest, residents warily eyed rising rivers while other waterlogged communities began cleaning up the wet, stinky mess left behind by floodwaters. Flood warnings remained in effect Wednesday across the region.

As much as 10 inches of rain fell in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri after Ike hit Texas over the weekend. Hurricane-force wind blew in Ohio and Kentucky and a tornado in Arkansas damaged several buildings.

About 900,000 homes and businesses in Ohio alone remained without electricity Wednesday, and long lines at supermarkets, hardware stores and gas stations were common.

Home Depot stores were short on generators, tarps, gas cans and other emergency supplies because some stock had been sent south to help with hurricane relief in Texas and Louisiana, said Jen King, a spokeswoman for Home Depot Inc.

"I'm pretty well getting empty," said Fred Beckert, who owns Beckert Chain Saw Supply in Zanesville, Ohio, and was having trouble keeping up with the demand for chain saws and generators. He was expecting more shipments later in the week but said the generators coming in already had buyers.

Lining up for ice
Elsewhere, truckloads of batteries, ice and coolers were selling as soon as they hit the shelves. Grocers and residents alike tried to preserve perishable food.

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Lines of people waited for bagged ice at a Bigg's supermarket in Mason, Ohio, and Cincinnati-based Home City Ice Co. was operating 24 hours a day to help meet the heavy demand.

"We've brought in about 160 semi loads of ice from our facilities in neighboring states, and even our managers and computer and accounting people have been bagging and delivering ice," said Jay Stautberg, Home City Ice's chief financial officer.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland toured wind-damaged sections of Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus on Tuesday, a day after declaring a state of emergency.

The governors of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Pennsylvania have also declared states of emergency. The storms brought Ike's death toll to at least 50 in 11 states from the Gulf Coast to the upper Ohio Valley, with new reports continuing to surface.

A 20-month-old boy apparently drowned in a stormwater-filled ditch near Auburn, Mich., about 100 miles north of Detroit. Firefighters tried to resuscitate the boy but he was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The deluge of rain left road crews in northern Indiana working for a third straight day to pump water from swamped lanes of interstates 80/94 and 65.

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