By MARCUS BURTON
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to the rescue to help thousands who have been left without electricity after severe ice storms.
Residents of New York, Maine and Northeastern Canada received shelter and supplies to help them endure through the crippling ice. The ice storms, which plague the Northeast and Canada, have caused power failure and left thousands without shelter.
'There has been a real state of emergency here,' said John Delisle, field manager of the LDS Church's physical facilities and branch president of the Mont-St-Hilaire Branch. 'For a few days at least 3 million people were without electricity, but now there is probably only 1 million.'
'Several church meeting houses in Montreal and Ottawa were without power, so a number of generators from the bishop's storehouse in Indianapolis were shipped up to that area for use,' said Don LeFevre, manager of Print Media Relations for the LDS Church.
'The Church has helped us a great deal. The generators provide enough power for the whole building,' Delisle said.
He also said the LDS Church has provided many families with smaller generators to heat and power their homes.
In addition to the generators, the LDS Church also donated over 4,000 blankets for distribution by the Red Cross in Maine, LeFevre said.
Members of the LDS Church in Canada and New York are not the only individuals being assisted.
'A Church meeting house in New York state is being used as a public shelter,' LeFevre said.
He also said the meeting houses in Montreal and Ottawa are being used to house missionaries, members and others whose homes are without power.
In Delisle's meeting house, they have not been able to shelter non-members because of problems with the furnace in the building. The generators were installed Sunday, but the furnace was not been fully operational until Thursday.
'We expect more people (today) because we will be inviting the public to join us,' he said.