Midwest also sees long lines for Ike relief

Other parts of the state were dealing with power outages caused by Ike's high winds. As of Tuesday, more than 100,000 Indiana homes and businesses remained without power, but phone service had been restored.

In Ohio, the state's utilities said they were trying to restore power in the shortest amount of time by prioritizing repairs for circuits that serve the largest numbers of people.

"It's just a matter of which way the wires go and how they were laid out," said Chris Eck, a spokesman for FirstEnergy Corp. in Ohio.

Across Kentucky, power outages still affected nearly 300,000 customers, the state said, down from as many as 600,000 customers at the peak — the state's biggest power outage on record. Louisville Gas & Electric predicted full power restoration in 10 to 14 days, with about 160,000 customers doing without power there early Wednesday.

Downed lines also knocked out power in western Pennsylvania, where about 64,000 customers remained in the dark early Wednesday. Utilities said they hoped to restore service to a majority of customers by Friday. Butler County, north of Pittsburgh, was under a state of emergency.

Across Illinois, officials said electricity had been restored to nearly all of the 49,000 left without power in the wake of the storm. Much of the Chicago area also was returning to normal Tuesday, as floodwaters began to recede. Ike had overwhelmed drainage and sewer systems in northern Illinois.

Elsewhere, some Illinois residents were waiting to return home. In Morris, about 100 people still couldn't reach homes in low-lying areas along the Illinois River, which hit a record when it topped 24 feet, or 8 feet above flood stage, Assistant Fire Chief Robert Wills said Tuesday.

In suburban Des Plaines, Ill., where more than 1,000 people were displaced by flooding, the Des Plaines River was expected to fall below flood stage Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

"The recovery process is under way," said Will Soderberg, a city spokesman. "And that should take the rest of the week."

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