Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 6, 1990 TAG: 9007060327
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ELLIE SCHAFFZIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"This is probably the busiest week in the ice industry. . . . Business has been booming," said Rick Bowles of Cassco Ice and Cold Storage.
The heat showed little mercy as temperatures climbed to a high of 92, falling 2 degrees short of melting the previous record for the date, set in 1986.
Winds of 10 to 15 mph eased things a bit, but the breeze was not all the Roanoke Valley turned to for relief.
Cassco dispatches its troops from Salem to battle the heat throughout the valley. Their 8-pound bags of ice were selling like snow shovels on the day of winter's first snow.
Cassco ships out ice that is stored in a freezer three stories high. It may sound like a nice place to be on a summer's day, but Bowles said the customers are the only ones enjoying the chill.
"Everyone says it's a cool job, but you sweat just as much in that cold truck," he said.
Kenneth Broughman of Mount Joy Ice Co. said his delivery trucks are equally busy. Mount Joy has had four trucks on the road almost constantly for 36 hours.
"It's really selling," Broughman said.
Air conditioner repair services were just as busy. Alice Hart of S.J. Conner and Sons, which offers 24-hour emergency service, said "Everybody and his brother wants air conditioning."
"If it breaks down in 95 degree weather, you're certainly going to panic," she said.
Thursday's heat-stricken panic made for good business at Woods Heating and Air Conditioning in Troutville as well. The repair shop was booked Thursday with faulty air conditioners, but it did get one unexpected call for an estimate: on a furnace installation.
"I can't see that right now, but we did," Woods employee Bea Gaylor said.
While air conditioner repairs are in demand, air conditioner sales are not so hot. Kent Whitlock of Pete Moore Appliance said that to date, sales are 30 percent below last year's.
"You have to have about four hot nights for the air conditioners to really sell," Whitlock said.
This week's highs may turn things around, though. Bob Sprigg of Rent-All in Roanoke said business has picked up a bit lately. Owner Earl Rogers said he thinks the near-record heat may put an end to the recently slow business.
"Maybe after today they'll change their mind," Rogers said.
Then again, the weather seems too inconsistent to promise any mad rushes to the appliance stores. Today's temperatures are expected to cool down to the 80s again.
But that won't last long, either. The National Weather Service expects the temperatures to climb back into the 90s by Monday.
Sales or no sales, Sprigg has no doubts about the weather right now.
"The general attitude is that it's just plain hot," he said.
by CNB