Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 15, 1993 TAG: 9303150074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN and JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
FATAL STORM LEAVES DANGER
At least five people died in Southwest Virginia in the blizzard of '93, including three from heart attacks while shoveling snow and a street person found dead at the Poff Building in downtown Roanoke.Many Roanoke streets and secondary roads in surrounding counties remained packed under the 2 to 3 feet of snow that blanketed Southwest Virginia and much of the Eastern United States on Saturday and Sunday.
Officials said subfreezing temperatures and brisk winds would make driving treacherous this morning, and they warned motorists not to be lulled into carelessness.
City Manager Bob Herbert said Roanoke Valley commuters will face "dangerous" icy conditions during today's morning rush hour.
"While the storm is over, we're still feeling its impact and streets are not yet safe," Herbert said Sunday.
"Today, with the sunshine and the lighter-than-expected winds, people may get a false sense that everything is back to normal, but it is not."
At least three men dies while shoveling snow: In Southwest Roanoke, Frank Lovitt Oliver, 76, died Saturday; Eugene Bane Sr., 82, of Grundy, died in Salem; and Peter Feret, a Virginia Tech professor of forestry, died outside his Blacksburg home.
Another man died after going into the Poff Building, apparently to get away from the bitterly cold temperatures. Wanda Reed, the city's emergency services manager, said the cause of death had not been determined. The state medical examiner's office had not performed an autopsy Sunday.
In Rockbridge County, Lloyd Kreider, 58, of Pennsylvania was killed Saturday morning when he was struck by a car on Interstate 81 in Rockbridge County after getting out of his van.
State emergency services officials also reported one weather-related death in Wise County and another in Rockingham County.
\ Relief for snow-plowers
On Sunday, snow-clearing crews began slowly cleaning up after the record storm.
Interstate 81 and most primary roads in Western Virginia were passable Sunday. But they were covered with packed snow in some places, making driving treacherous.
The state Department of Transportation will bring in additional equipment and employees to help clear the snow-covered roads in Western Virginia. Large motor graders will be used to clear roads where snow has drifted.
"We're trying to get everything we can. We're bringing in some equipment from Suffolk and Fredericksburg," said Laura Bullock, a spokeswoman for the department.
Highway employees also were being brought in from eastern Virginia to provide relief for drivers of snow-plow trucks in the Roanoke Valley and Western Virginia.
"We're working around the clock and have hired all of the private contractors we can get," Bullock said.
She didn't have an immediate estimate of the number of workers clearing the roads in the region.
Motorists still were being advised to travel only if necessary. And they should have chains or snow tires, Bullock said.
Highway officials said that many secondary roads in the region won't be plowed until today or Tuesday.
\ Airlift to Bland
Sunday night, the Virginia National Guard airlifted food to Bland County High School, where 600 travelers stranded by the storm sought emergency shelter.
About 300 of those travelers had spent Saturday night trapped in Big Walker Mountain Tunnel on Interstate 77, said Yvonne Endicott, shelter manager.
They were rescued Sunday morning by highway department workers, state police and volunteers with four-wheel-drive vehicles.
In all, the rural county of 6,000 made room for 1,200 to 1,400 travelers during the storm weekend, Sheriff Melvin Cox said.
"We have been overwhelmed by it," said Endicott, who praised the travelers, many from Canada and Ohio, for their resilience and flexibility.
In Norton, state highway crews bulldozed a path through deep snow drifts to rescue between 12 and 15 people who were stranded on High Knob Mountain for about 21 hours, authorities said.
Barbara Edwards, deputy coordinator for emergency services in neighboring Scott County, said the group originally drove up the mountain Friday night to go "four-wheeling," using four-wheel-drive vehicles to drive off the roads. They were rescued Saturday night.
\ Few take to shelters
In the Roanoke Valley, Herbert said motorists should use good judgment if they must travel today. Chains and snow tires were recommended.
Herbert encouraged residents to ride Valley Metro buses if they are running. But the company won't know until this morning whether the buses will operate.
"If the streets are passable, we will be running," said Stephen Mancuso, general manager of the bus system. "It depends on how icy the streets are."
Herbert said city crews are finding it difficult to clear the streets because of the way that the storm developed.
"During the course of the storm, we had rain, slush, then freezing rain, then snow which is now packed and frozen," he said.
The snow has been cleared off the main streets, he said, but there still is a layer of packed snow and ice.
Most downtown streets were covered with snow and ice. City crews were using backhoes and motor grades to clear them, stacking the snow in piles more than 6 feet high.
City crews began moving into residential areas Sunday morning with both steel-blade and rubber-blade snow plows, four-wheel-drive vehicles, front-end loaders and other snow-moving equipment. By today, city crews hope to clear most residential streets.
Jim McClung, the city's acting director of public works, said 100 city employees with nearly 100 pieces of equipment have been clearing the streets since Friday. The storm has cost the city $100,000 in overtime and other expenses.
If the federal government declares Western Virginia a disaster area, Herbert said, the city could be eligible for reimbursement for part of the cost.
City officials declared a local emergency late Saturday, clearing the way for the National Guard to assist the city with evacuating people without electricity and in shuttling medical-emergency patients, including those needing dialysis.
Reed, the emergency services manager, said about 50 people were evacuated.
Only a dozen people used an emergency shelter at the Roanoke Civic Center on Saturday. The shelter was closed Sunday afternoon, and the four people remaining there were taken to an emergency shelter at the Salem Civic Center.
\ Slowing trains, planes
Road traffic was not the only form of transportation affected by the storm, which weather forecasters called the most powerful snowstorm in the United States this century.
The Roanoke Regional Airport closed Saturday at 6 a.m. and won't reopen until today. Mark Courtney, marketing director of the airport, said crews hope to clear one runway by mid-morning.
The Yellow Cab Co. of Roanoke discontinued taxi service about 8 a.m. Saturday. By noon Sunday, four cabs with tire chains were in operation and a company spokesman said he hoped to get more cabs on the road.
Even Norfolk Southern trains, normally oblivious to winter snows, were slowed to a snail's pace. Don Piedmont, a company spokesman, said about 90 percent of the train traffic in Roanoke was canceled from noon Saturday until 7 a.m. Sunday. Norfolk Southern used locomotives equipped with snow plows to clear drifts across its tracks.
Appalachian Power Co. workers scurried to scattered outages throughout the region.
In the Roanoke division alone, 17,000 customers were without electricity Saturday.
By Sunday morning, the number of outages had been whittled to about 9,500 customers, but Apco workers like everyone else were being hampered by the snow.
By 5 p.m. the number of customers without power was reduced to 7,900 customers.
The conditions made it hard to get to people, Apco spokeswoman Victoria Ratcliff said.
Two Apco trucks got stuck on snow-slickened roads, she said.
Hardest hit in the Apco's Roanoke division - which stretches south to the North Carolina border - were Henry and Patrick counties. Nearly half of the outages were in those Southside counties.
Ratcliff said most of the outages were scattered and had to be repaired individually, unlike downed circuits that return power to many customers at once.
Staff Writer Carolyn Click and the Associated Press provided some information for this story.
Keywords:
FATALITY