Western Kansas residents waited for the return of electrical power Wednesday, and many worried about the fate of thousands of head of cattle trying to survive after a winter storm that covered the area in snow and ice.

Cattle is big business in Kansas, especially in the counties socked with last week’s storm that dropped up to 3 feet of snow, with 15-foot drifts and left ice 5 or 6 inches thick around limbs and power lines. Kansas ranks No. 2 behind Texas with 6.65 million cattle on ranches and in feedlots.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who declared a disaster emergency for 44 counties, toured the area Wednesday from the air and on the ground. While going through storm-damaged areas in Colby, Ulysses and Satanta, Sebelius said, “The size of this storm has brought more damage to this area than we’ve seen in years.”

Spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said the governor planned to ask for federal disaster assistance.

“It could take weeks before things get to normal. The power outages have been significant, and they have had a tremendous impact on residents in western Kansas,” said Sharon Watson, Kansas National Guard spokeswoman.

About 60,000 people were without electrical power at the peak of the storm, largely because 9,700 utility poles were toppled by the storm that blew into Kansas on Thursday and intensified Friday. Watson didn’t have an estimate Wednesday of how many people remained without power, but it was slowly being restored by utility crews.

Cattle crisis

The storm also had led to the deaths of cattle, as animals either froze to death or asphyxiated as snow became packed in their nostrils.

Kansas Livestock Association spokeswoman Scarlett Hagins said it was too early to tell what the long-term impact will be.

“We have no idea how widespread it is. We haven’t heard a lot of reports of animals being lost,” Hagins said. “Most of the reports we’re getting are from the southwest part of the state.”

A car rests in a snowdrift Wednesday along Kansas Highway 27 near Johnson City after a major snowstorm that hit western Kansas last week.

Haskell County Commissioner Gene Ochs said dead cattle were piling up in feedlots in his far southwestern Kansas county.

“I don’t know what we are going to do, how we are going to dispose of them,” Ochs said.

One Haskell County feedlot owner told The Associated Press on Wednesday he had lost 450 cattle out of the 155,000 he has on feed preparing for slaughter and 20 dairy cattle out of his herd of 7,500.

Still, Roy Brown, co-owner of Cattle Empire near Satanta, said his losses were not as bad as he thought they would be given the severity of the storm, and he noted his insurance would cover his losses, which he estimated at about $350,000. In a 1997 storm, he said, he lost 2,500 head out of the 130,000 he had on feed.

Since Sunday, some 100 Guard troops have been pressed into service, including some who started hauling hay Wednesday to the fields on flatbed trucks in Wallace County on the Colorado border. Watson said helicopters could be pressed into service and additional counties may be added to the hay distribution list.

Water shortage

The storm affected water service in many areas because lack of power shut down many municipal water plants and well pumps in rural communities. Watson said stores in some counties were running short of bottled water and Guard troops could bring in water if necessary.

Vicki Leiker, of Wallace, walks through the path cut through the snow leading up to the Wallace County Courthouse Wednesday in Sharon Springs.

“They will be fine once they get their power back on and the pumps start working again,” Watson said.

The Guard sent large portable generators to help restore power at water and sewage treatment plants in the communities of Utica, Winona, Gove, Grainfield, Quinter, Collyer, Almena and Park and generators for shelters in Gove and Collyer. Once power is restored, the generators will be taken to other communities.

Team work

Utility crews working to restore power were helped by local residents.

Earl Steffens, general manager of Lane-Scott Electric Cooperative in Dighton, said about 30 farmers used their tractors to help pull the utility’s bucket and digger trucks through the mud and snow. The storm toppled more than a thousand of the cooperative’s power poles.

All 3,000 of the co-op’s customers in seven western Kansas counties lost power for three days. By Wednesday, power had been restored to 300 to 400 customers.

“This is the worst storm we’ve ever had,” Steffens said.

Aquila Inc. was working Wednesday to restore power to 1,600 of the 20,000 customers left without power.

Midwest Energy had slashed its number of customers without power to 1,500, from a high of 6,000.

“We’re hoping to cut that in half by the end of the day,” said spokesman Bob Helm.

Sunflower Electric Power Corp., revised its peak outage numbers upward Wednesday to 36,030 from 22,000. Spokesman Steve Miller estimated 17,300 customers remained without service Wednesday, but cautioned that the numbers are only estimates and change “by the minute.” He said thawing ice falling off overhead lines could increase the number of outages during the day.

“Nobody is going to rest until every soul has gotten electricity in their homes,” Miller said.