Sep 27 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Dan Gearino, Mark Niquette and Spencer Hunt The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

With the government's storm-response tab topping $34 million and hundreds of thousands of people struggling to clear trees and replace spoiled food after the Sept. 14 wind storm, American Electric Power is thinking about billing its customers for the cost of restoring their power.

Joseph Hamrock, president and chief executive of AEP Ohio, said yesterday that the fee is an option, but he said it's too early to speculate about the details.

His comments were made as part of a wide-ranging interview as his company, the region and the state continue to tally the storm's toll.

A preliminary estimate from the state shows $34.5 million in costs associated with debris removal, road and bridge damage, and the like.

The size of any AEP surcharge, which would need to be approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, would depend on the cost of the storm response, which the company is still calculating.

For some perspective, the 2004 ice storm led to a roughly $1-per-month fee for 12 months for a typical customer. The ice storm affected about half as many people as the 700,000 AEP Ohio customers who lost power two weeks ago. The prospect of a surcharge on customers, many of whom sat in the dark for days, doesn't sit well with the state's consumer advocate.

AEP should cover storm costs without an extra fee, said Ohio Consumers' Counsel Janine Migden-Ostrander.

"I think customers right now are too angry to consider paying a charge," she said.

Customers already have helped AEP earn a lot of money, she said.

AEP reported $1.1 billion in profit on revenue of $13.4 billion last year in an 11-state territory. In the first six months of this year, AEP has $854 million in profit on $7 billion in revenue. AEP's Ohio utilities accounted for about $1.2 billion of that revenue.

Before the storm, AEP already was making plans to ask its customers to pay more. AEP has a rate proposal filed with the PUCO that would raise Ohio rates 15 percent in each of the next three years.

Of the wind storm and its response, Hamrock said the company was caught off-guard because weather forecasts called for winds of 40 to 45 mph, much less than the hurricane-force 75 mph winds that hit.

"We've never seen anything on that scale," he said.

Adding to the initial problems responding to downed lines, several hundred AEP Ohio workers had been dispatched to the Gulf Coast to help with recovery from Hurricane Ike, the same storm that caused the Ohio damage.

Hamrock said the decision to send the workers was based partly on the relatively mild forecast for Ohio.

On the evening of Sept. 14, winds knocked tree branches into power lines, toppled poles and even uprooted whole trees. Hamrock said his employees spent most of the first day estimating the scope of the damage, organizing the repair crews, and dealing with the most-pressing safety issues.

It was only after the safety problems were contained that the company began to focus on restoring power. Just as AEP provided help in Texas, other power companies sent workers from other states to help in Ohio, including crews from Florida, New York and Wisconsin.

The company's best efforts weren't enough to satisfy some of its customers.

"I felt like a vagrant, a refugee," said Christi Baldwin of Mount Vernon in Knox County. Her husband, daughter and two dogs had to find alternatives for food, laundry and other basic needs.

Hamrock said he has heard complaints about the wait for power restoration, and he hopes that customers will come to see that the response was appropriate considering the severity of the storm.

That said, he plans to spend the next few months reviewing the response and hopes to learn from any shortcomings that he discovers.

"We're not saying everything is where it should be," he said.

While AEP is still tallying the expense involved in power-restoration efforts on its end, the state has reached a preliminary estimate of $34.5 million in storm-related costs, which is the amount for which the state is seeking federal aid.

That number comes from 33 of the state's 88 counties that are eligible to seek federal aid, said Tamara McBride, a spokeswoman for the state Emergency Operations Center. To be eligible, a county must have damage exceeding an amount determined by a federal formula based on the county's population.

The damage expenses must fall into one of seven categories for federal reimbursement, including debris removal, road and bridge damage, and utility repairs, McBride said.

The counties are expected to complete the damage numbers with state and federal officials during the week of Oct. 6, after which Gov. Ted Strickland will make a request to President Bush for the federal aid, she said.

The Ohio Insurance Institute said it might not have an estimate of insured losses until that same week.

The Plain Dealer reported today that the windstorm will probably cost insurance companies at least $500 million.

Other groups also are trying to put a number to the storm's effects.

The American Red Cross said it has provided 287 overnight stays at 25 emergency shelters across Ohio. It also served about 26,000 meals to people without food and power.

At least five Columbus departments -- Public Utilities, Recreation and Parks, Public Safety, Public Service and Health -- are pulling together cost estimates for overtime, equipment and damage so the city can apply for federal disaster funding.

Franklin County landfill officials said refuse haulers dumped about 1,300 tons more garbage than usual since the storm. That amount included at least 300 tons of spoiled food from grocery stores.

Rumpke, yard-waste hauler for Columbus and 10 suburbs including Bexley, Dublin and Westerville, collected 4,858 tons of debris since Sept. 15. Jonathan Kissell, a Rumpke spokesman, said the company would typically expect about 1,160 tons.

dgearino@dispatch.com

shunt@dispatch.com

mniquette@dispatch.com

Copyright © 2008The McClatchy Company