CHICAGO – Two women in southern Illinois have died due to consequences of the season’s first winter storm, bringing the state’s death toll to four, officials said Sunday.

Tina M. Pearl, 50, was found dead inside her Glen Carbon home on Saturday after using a gas-powered generator in an unventilated garage, according to Madison County Coroner Stephen Nonn.

On Friday, Ann T. Gardiner, 56, was killed while turning at an Edwardsville intersection where traffic lights weren’t functioning because of a power outage, Nonn’s office said in a statement.

Meanwhile, about 198,000 Ameren Corp. customers in central and southern Illinois remained without power Sunday as crews worked 18-hour shifts in frigid weather to fix downed power lines.

“I think some customers are looking at several more days before power is restored,” said spokesman Leigh Morris.

In East St. Louis, about 500 members of the Illinois National Guard knocked on 2,000 doors to check on residents who spent their third day without power.

Guardsmen have already canvassed 750 miles of highway searching for stranded vehicles. They found 35, including semitrailers and one wayward snowplow, said Lt. Col. Tim Franklin.

“They didn’t find any stranded people, just stranded vehicles,” Franklin said.

The storm was blamed for at least 15 deaths nationally.

Two other Illinois deaths were attributed to the storm: Betty Turner, 73, died after being struck by a snow plow backing up in the Chicago suburb of La Grange, and Joseph Persons, 67, of Downs in central Illinois collapsed and died of complications from heart disease after trimming tree limbs with a hand saw.

In Peoria, fire officials urged homeowners to check their roofs after a nursing home ceiling collapsed, injuring four residents. Authorities temporarily closed a Wal-Mart as a precaution Saturday night because of heavy ice and snow on its roof.

“It’s slow, but it’s a lot better than it was yesterday,” Peoria Fire Division Chief Greg Walters said of Sunday’s cleanup effort.

The bitter temperatures and continued lack of power didn’t stop some 230 First Baptist Church congregants in Belleville from worshipping in a nearby restaurant that lent them the space.

“A lot of people associate a church with a building, but times like this make it clear it’s the people,” associate pastor Richard Weaver said after a 90-minute service that was punctuated by the smell of fresh fried chicken. “Whether you meet in a church or under a tree it’s not important as long as you have the right spirit and purpose.”

At his Ridge Road Tree Farm just south of Urbana, Dave Shoemaker found Sunday’s demand for his Christmas trees back to normal, even though the firs still hadn’t thawed. A day earlier, the trees were coated with so much ice they glistened like they’d been sprayed with clear acrylic.

“The cold and the snow scared away a few,” Shoemaker said, estimating business was down 10 to 15 percent.

Temperatures across much of the state will hover in the teens and 20s on Monday while wind chills should make it feel even colder, slowing down cleanup efforts, according to the National Weather Service.

“I don’t care who you are and what good of shape you’re in, you’re working in what are really arctic conditions here in central Illinois,” Ameren’s Morris said. “It takes a toll on you when you’re working 18 straight hours.”

In Belleville, 20 miles east of St. Louis, Westhaven Elementary School remained in demand as an American Red Cross shelter. Most of the 100 cots sprawled out in the gymnasium were spoken for, as were the site’s six hospital-style beds for residents with special needs, the shelter’s day manager said.

“Our demand, oddly enough, has been growing,” Gerald Ellis said.