WATAUGA COUNTY, N.C. -- Blue Ridge Electric says it may be Wednesday before power is restored to all residents in Watauga and Ashe counties.
"This was devastating, just devastating," said Shelby Milam as she served breakfast to a couple at Brandie's Grill off Highway 321 in downtown Blowing Rock. "It's the worst I've seen since I've lived here."
Business at Brandie's Grill was slower than usual for a Monday, but at least the business has power.
"You can tell," said Brandie Miller, who has owned the restaurant for years. "There are a lot of people without heat and power who just can't come out."
The Christmas day ice storm knocked down trees and power lines. As of 6 a.m. Monday, 4,300 homes were without power in Watauga County. About 700 were without power in Ashe County.
Officials had been hopeful that power would be restored by Tuesday, but Blue Ridge Electric spokesperson Renee Whitener said Monday that some residents may be without power until Wednesday.
"We had to up the number of crews called in to 300, instead of 250 because of all the damage the storm caused," said Whitener.
Resident Micki Hartley said she is dealing with the outage the best she can.
"My mother-in-law lives next door to us and she's on oxygen and we were able to get a two-day supply and bring her to our house, but I haven't been able to take a bath in two days," she said with a laugh. "Up and down Middlefork Road there are trees down all over."
Hartley said her boss sent his sons over to her house to cut up trees and shovel out ice that blocked her driveway so she could get to work.
"I called the power company, but they don't know how long it'll be," Hartley said.
"It’s been a long couple of days and nights," Blue Ridge Electric crew leader Hoss Prestwood told NewCchannel 36, as several groups of men worked on power lines in the Deerfield Road and Bamboo Road area near Boone Sunday morning. "Yesterday, we were successful getting most of our main circuits on. ... Now we are following back trying to get the developments on and the communities on and the individual taps."
"The things that make our mountain districts beautiful -- the many trees, hillsides and rough terrain -- also make it more difficult to restore power after a weather event like we've just experienced that has torn down so much of the system," said Whitener. "Major and back roads have also been blocked, and we've brought in bulldozers to help clear the way.
The images of ice on trees in the area are striking and beautiful, but fallen limbs and bent tree trunks are disheartening to the people who live there. NewsChannel 36 heard many residents call it a "warzone" and liken the damage to Hurricane Hugo's wrath 20 years ago.
"I don’t know that there’s a tree in the whole neighborhood that’s not been damaged," Lawrence Caviness said.
His home was still without power Sunday morning.
"A lot of this stuff is melting and falling out of the trees now, which is really good," Caviness said. "It was probably at least 2 or 3 times this bad initially."
Watauga County Emergency Management was working with Blue Ridge Electric to try to clear debris. The southern and eastern parts of the county were considered the most damaged.
(Reporters Beth Shayne and Richard DeVayne contributed to this report.)
