American Electric Power and other utilities often share work crews when major power outages occur. And, most often freezing rain is the culprit during winter storms. But, spokeswoman Vicki Michalski says for the coming storm , A-E-P crews will stay put in the region as freezing rain is expected through much of its service area. .

“So, we’ll be focusing, at first, as everybody will on their own territories before they would be willing and able to give up crews to neighboring utilities that need assistance.”

Michalski says ice accumulations of a quarter to a half-inch can be problematic for utilities, especially if the freezing rain is accompanied by high winds.

Assistant U.S. attorney Dan Brown says an American who’s yet to be charged and an Estonian were running a marriage business in Columbus. That business helped eastern Europeans from the former Soviet bloc find American spouses.

“The man from Estonia would find people who wanted to remain in the United States and couldn’t seem to get it done legally,” Brown says. “And the American would find a potential spouse who was willing to accept money in order to engage in the sham marriage.”

The problem is that a sham marriage for the purpose of evading immigration laws is illegal. But the desire to stay in the United States was a driving force says Brown.

“One of these men who paid an American woman to get married was from Uzbekistan and he came here and he ended up quite frankly just loving America. And he just couldn’t bear the thought of going home.”

That man was 22-year-old Sobithon Mirzaev who came to Columbus from Louisiana to get married.

“He lived in New Orleans, and he was so enamored with America that he was a regular volunteer cleaning up the mess left by Katrina,” Brown says. “So there are very strong feelings with respect to some of these people. The Americans accepting the money; I think that’s really reprehensible.”

Terry Sherman is an attorney for another of the defendants from Uzbekistan. He says that his client, who he would not name, was told that if he got married it would enhance his ability to get a green card. That’s a permanent resident card.

“Somebody set him up with an American, and they entered into a sham marriage for the purpose of obtaining a green card,” Sherman says.

According to the federal government the sham marriages occurred shortly after the foreign national and the U.S. citizen met each other; sometimes they got married on the same day.

Brown says marriages typically cost between $14,000 and $20,000 though the money wasn’t paid in a lump sum. That’s because the alien was leery that the American would simply get an annulment or a divorce. So, says Brown:

“There were payments to get the marriage license, payments to get married and then monthly payments which would culminate essentially in a pretty good lump sum.”

The couple did appear before immigration authorities even though they had not lived together.

“When the interview with the immigration authorities occurred and the interview would be with both parties and they had to make it look like they were a married couple and knew a lot about each other when in fact they didn’t even live together. They had to rehearse what they were going to say,” Brown says.

Khaalid Walls is a spokesman for ICE: the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Walls says sham marriages can lead to other crimes.

“Marriage fraud schemes do two things,” Walls says. “First of all, they basically hamper our overall security efforts because more often than not fake documents are used to perpetuate these crimes. And then secondly, individuals who enter into sham marriages end up sort of jumping the line on a path to citizenship so these individuals are unfairly put on a path to citizenship by entering into these marriages.”

U.S. attorney Dan Brown would not say how authorities uncovered the marriage fraud ring, because he says, the investigation is on-going and more people are likely to be charged. But he does say that marriage fraud is a widespread problem in the U.S.

“These are happening all over the United States,” Brown says. “Columbus is apparently experiencing this kind of illegality no more or no less than any other city of comparable size.”

The sound of chain saws could be heard across Lancaster as people cleared downed branches and even whole trees. Mary Ann Brocksmith watched as her boss, Larry Snyder, cut thick limbs into firewood. Brocksmith said ice was the culprit that tore down power lines and made driving nearly impossible.

“We live down here and it’s been bad,” Brocksmith said. “I mean I drive a little economical car and I can’t even get out of my driveway. Fresh snow isn’t bad but when there’s ice on the road you can’t move. So I’m pretty much stuck.”

For those who could not drive, and whose homes were without power, the Fairfield County sheriff’s department was ready to help. Sheriff’s lieutenant Tim Voris:

“I have designated deputies with four wheel drive vehicles,” Voris says. “They have been picking up residents in their homes where their power has been out or they’ve needed some assistance and we’ve taken them to the open shelter.”

The shelter is at a church campground west of Lancaster. Red Cross volunteer Loretta Nixon says there’s been a steady stream of families going in and out as they lose power and then it’s restored.

“We’ve had people since yesterday coming in and they find out their powers on and then they would leave and then more would come in,” Nixon said. “It’s just been very transitional. Right now we’re expecting some overflow from Hocking County. It’s a shelter out of the storm.”

Counties to the south had declared Level 3 emergencies. Fairfield County remained at Level 2 with secondary roads still posing treacherous conditions. But according to county EMA director John Kochis the risk of staying in an unheated home for a second night was even greater.

“[We're] trying to urge as many people tonight to seek shelter,” Kochis said. We had a large power outage in September but we didn’t have the cold temperatures. It’s going to be single digits tonight and we really want to avoid people staying home in a frozen environment. It’s dangerous.”

“Probably three-fourths of the county is out of electric,” Hickey says. “We’re having a lot of calls for service; getting assistance for heat, getting family members to shelters, things of that nature.”

But according to Vinton County EMA director Tom Coelho, there are no shelters because most facilities in the county are without electricity or back-up generators. Coelho is advising residents to ‘shelter in place.’

In neighboring Ross County, EMA director David Bethel says that between 4,000 and 5,000 customers are without power.

“The roads are snow and ice covered, traffic is moving real slow and careful, we’re having a lot of power lines coming down. That’s causing a lot of folks not to have electric, and I think there are interruptions of cable and phone service,” Bethel says.

Even though most of the storm has left the state, an American Electric Power official says more and more people in Southern Ohio continue to lose their electric service. AEP spokeswoman Teri Flora:

“So far our numbers have been climbing instead of declining as we would have anticipated,” Flora says. “But because of the weather conditions down in southern Ohio more outages are being reported throughout the day. As limbs get heavier and heavier and the lines add weight, we knew that more outages would occur.”

Flora says a majority of the 122,000 customers without electricity are in the Athens, Chillicothe and Newark areas. She says it could be several days before all customers are back on-line.

“With an outage of this extent and with the damage that we’re seeing we know this will go well into the weekend until we have everyone restored,” Flora says.

Westerville City Schools Gahanna Jefferson Schools Bexley City Schools Dublin City Schools Hilliard City Schools Upper Arlington Pickerington City Schools Olentangy Local Schools Canal Winchester schools Southwest Licking Valley Teays Valley North Union Walnut Township Big Walnut Worthington Christian Granville Exempted Village Columbus Catholic Schools Graham School Eastland Career Center Fairfield Career Center Columbus State Community College Ohio Dominican University Ohio University’ Lancaster campus and Pickerington Center are also closed. Xenos Adult Classes cancelled.

“I’m just doing the neighborly thing and shoveling the sidewalk,” Bobbie Jacobowitz said.

Jacobowitz and her husband own the UPS Store next to Starbucks at North High Street and West Poplar Avenue in the trendy Short North neighborhood. Jacobowitz said she could have closed the store, but…

“We have responsibilities as well. So we thought we should open it in case customers have things to drop off…so…we’re open.”

As Jacobowitz went back to clearing the sidewalk Starbucks patron Bryce Millikan came out to lend her a hand.

“I rent a mailbox next door and I said she other more important things to do so I thought I’d come out and help her out a little bit,” Millikan said.

Millikan is one of many Ohioans who have been affected by the recession. He’s out of work right now, so the winter weather did not affect him. Millikan’s doing the same thing he does everyday.

“Just looking for work. It’s my favorite place to hang out and get on-line and look for work,” he said.

CLOSED:

Columbus City Schools Columbus Catholic Schools Canal Winchester Pickerington Local Schools Walnut Township Schools Teays Valley Bloom Carroll Reynoldsburg Granville Exempted Village Eastland Career Center Fairfield Career Center

The Following School Districts on a Two-hour delay.

Westerville City Schools (No AM K) Big Walnut (No Morning Kindergarten) Gahanna-Jefferson (No AM K) North Union Local Olentangy Local

WOSU’s Lauren Schmoll reports…

National Weather Service Meteorologist Jeffery Sites says central Ohio will likely see a combination of snow and ice this weekend.

“Warmer air is going to change the precipitation generally south of I71 to rain,” Sites said. “But then there’s going to be a transition zone with rain, freezing rain, snow and sleet.”

It’s that icy mix that gives utility crews fits. At American Electric Power, Vicki Michalski says the company has a plan in place to battle winter’s worst… even when that means ice.

“The problems start when you see a quarter of an inch up to three quarters of an inch,” Michalski said. “When you start getting into those accumulations, that’s where you start getting into real problems.”

Regardless of how much snow and ice lands on central Ohio this weekend, AEP says it’s ready.

“We’ve already begun alerting crews to let them know its possible that they could be called in,” Michalski said.