Thousands remain without power in western Kansas, days after a storm dumped more than one foot of snow in some areas.

Electric crews are working around the clock, trying to replace damaged power poles near Lakin in Kearny County.

On Day 4 without power, Adrian Price uses a generator to run electricity to her home. Her family's power went out Saturday morning when heavy snow and wind snapped power poles nearby.

They have a wood-burning stove, which has kept their house warm and given them some normalcy.

"I just thought, 'I need to wash my hair,' so I heated up water on our stove, on our wood stove. And it made a world of difference to have clean hair, and really be able to scrub my face," Price says.

At one point during the storm, Price and her husband found themselves stuck in a ditch after they had helped a neighbor round up cattle.

To their amazement, the National Guard showed up. Price recalls the conversation she had with a guardsman.

"I said, 'Are you really the U.S. Army, and he said, 'I'm with the National Guard,' and I said, 'Are you going to save us today?' and he said, 'I'm going to give you a ride.''

Price's neighbor to the west are also without power.

Teal Rice, who lives close to the highway, says she watched as power poles snapped early Sunday morning.

"My first thought was, 'Oh crap, we're screwed, because I knew our power was going to be gone for several days," she says.

Now, Rice says all she can do is wait until the power comes back on.

"You just got to take a step back and slow down, and use common sense," she says.

As of 5;30 p.m. Tuesday, Wheatland Electric reports about 2,200 meters are out, including 460 residents. About 1,200 power poles were damaged or destroyed.

A spokesman for Wheatland Electric says it could still take days for power to be fully restored.