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By Bob Weaver
6 PM Friday - Most rural residents of Calhoun are still without electric and phone service at this hour, although most roads are now passable after the cutting of several thousand trees which toppled from heavy ice.
The storm damaged or toppled tens of thousands of trees, after it struck last Saturday night.
Allegheny Power is telling regional residents electric can be restored by Sunday night. Power has already been restored to sections along Route 16 and Route 5.
The county's three fire departments, the DOH, volunteer crews and neighbors have opened the highways, some still one-way.
Power and telephone cables are broken and hundreds of poles are down,requiring a massive effort to restore service. The electric company has 1,700 workers in this region working on the problem, and Frontier, the local telephone company, has several contract crews restoring service.
Calhoun's 911 Center reported few "major problems" so far, mostly medical runs for Calhoun EMS and assistance calls for medicine, food and water.
The 911 center struggled with electric service for periods of time, operating on a generator, and phone service to the center was disrupted for periods. The center is currently functioning, although phone service is still limited "out in the county."
Grantsville's Senior Center and the First Baptist Church have been utilized as emergency shelters.
The county's three fire departments have been busy around the clock providing services to the community, from tree cutting to emergency deliveries. Grantsville Fire Chief Steve Heath said we have been up and down virtually every road in our coverage area, "cuttin trees and doing what we can."
Arnoldsburg Fire Chief Bill Jones said "We'd cut trees out to get traffic through, and others would fall down behind us. It was a pretty scary thing for the first two days," he said. "One tree fell down on a members truck out on Sand Ridge."
Local church pastors and their members went "on the road" to see what they could do to help. Pastor Mike Worf of the Victory Baptist Church said "We'd just ask if they needed any thing."
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