A couple hundred more Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative customers should have electricity again by this evening.

Spokesman Russ Elliott said a major line serving customers throughout Lawrence and Scioto counties was repaired over the weekend, and should be reenergized this afternoon. This should include about 160 customers of John's Creek Road, Pine Creek Road and Slab Fork Road, Elliott said.

"This should cut the number of people without electricity down to about 50 or 75 customers," Elliott said.

Those remaining Buckeye Rural customers without electric are scattered over a nine-county area. Electricity was interrupted three Sundays ago when an ice storm blanketed the area, knocking out power to more than 20,000 throughout the Tri-State region.

Over the weekend, crews continued to clean up storm debris throughout the northern part of Lawrence County. Part of State Route 93 in Decatur Township was reduced to one-lane traffic Saturday as workers removed trees, stumps and tree limbs from along the roadway.

Last week, The Lawrence County Commission sent a letter to Buckeye representatives, asking them to explain why the repairs to restore electricity was taking so long. This came after a Buckeye Rural customer attended the commission meeting and expressed frustration with the situation. Roy Tackett, who owns a body shop on Oak Ridge Road, said the lack of electricity was hurting his business.