DaytonDailyNews.com

Increasing numbers of groceries, banks and other companies have regained electricity and resumed operations as the region continues to recover from windstorm damage.

Rachael Betzler, a spokeswoman for Kroger, said 29 of the grocer's 30 stores in the Dayton-Springfield area are open. The 1555 Wayne Ave. store in Dayton remains closed because of lost power, Betzler said.

Calvin Mayne, vice president of Dorothy Lane Market, said DLM's stores in Springboro and Washington Twp. regained electricity Tuesday, Sept. 16. Since then, workers have been re-stocking produce, frozen foods and meats at those locations, Mayne said.

A third DLM store in Oakwood has continued operating throughout the storm's aftermath.

After power was lost, DLM gave away breads, produce and other perishables to the Salvation Army and other food banks, and also cooked some of the meat in the stores, Mayne said. But it still had to throw away some inventory, ultimately filling several large steel trash bins in the process, Mayne said.

"Our thought was we don't want anyone to get sick," he said. "It's so hard to do this, to throw away food. You have to err on the safe side."

Betzler said Kroger stores still are replacing food lost during the outage. She didn't have a tally of the amount of spoiled food that Kroger has discarded since the weekend, but added, "I can tell you it's been a lot."

While Gov. Ted Strickland has requested federal disaster assistance, it doesn't include money for property or inventory sustained by businesses during the storm, said Tamara McBride of the Ohio Emergency Operations Center. Private businesses will have to look to insurance to cover such losses.

Area banks also were returning to normal Thursday. Chase bank and National City Bank each reported having a single branch closed due to power loss and three offices of Fifth Third Bank were still closed.