KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Federal disaster chief Joe Allbaugh spent several hours Friday touring fire- and tree-damaged spots in Missouri and Kansas, where hundreds of thousands of residents lost power in the middle of winter.

The thousands of utility customers in Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., still without power Friday after last week’s ice storm should have electricity by Saturday, the mayors of those cities said. At the peak of the outage, more than 420,000 customers were without power.

The fire risk also jumped tenfold because of damaged electrical connections caused by felled power lines. Kansas City, Mo., firefighters handled 3,700 calls in one night.

President Bush issued disaster declarations Thursday for both Missouri and Kansas, triggering the release of millions of dollars in federal funds to help the Kansas City region recover.

After touring the metropolitan area, Allbaugh gathered with officials from both states at a Kansas City, Kan., neighborhood where AmeriCorps volunteers were cutting limbs that had fallen from trees under the weight of ice.

“This is a day where Kansas and Missouri are coming together,” said Kansas Gov. Bill Graves. “This (ice storm) is an example of where the state line doesn’t discriminate.”

Local governments on both sides of the state line have estimated public damage and recovery costs at nearly $50 million. Allbaugh refused to say how much the Federal Emergency Management Agency would spend to help the area with cleanup, saying it would depend on how much was needed.

But he urged residents including those who spent nights in hotel rooms after being forced from their suddenly chilly homes to contact FEMA for assistance: “I don’t want anybody to miss out,” he said.

AmeriCorps officials said members were coming from all over the country this weekend, and urged local volunteers to help with the cleanup or assist by answering phones at the Salvation Army Shelter in Kansas City, Mo.

Meanwhile, the head of the company that owns KCPL suggested that the utility may ask Kansas and Missouri regulators for a rate increase to pay for storm recovery costs.

FEMA officials said for-profit utilities aren’t eligible for government help.