Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 15, 1993 TAG: 9303150076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Staff report
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
`EVERYBODY HAS PULLED TOGETHER'
Tiny Bland County found out it had a big, big heart during the blizzard of '93.The county, snug on the West Virginia border, has only 6,000 residents. But through the stormy weekend it made room for 1,200 to 1,400 travelers stranded by drifting and blowing snow on Interstate 77.
About 600 people, including 300 who spent a chilly night inside the Big Walker Mountain Tunnel before their rescue, were housed Sunday night at Bland County High School, said Yvonne Endicott, the county's social services director and emergency shelter manager.
Another 600 to 800 were scattered throughout the county in churches and halls.
Endicott said the unexpected influx of visitors taxed the county's resources to the limits - but apparently not its spirit.
Young people in four-wheel-drive vehicles volunteered to help ferry stranded travelers off the highway. Grocery and convenience stores opened for huge runs on bread and sandwich meats, and travelers even lined up to volunteer to help coordinate shelter activities.
"There has been nothing like this before," she said.
Sheriff Melvin Cox agreed. The county has aided travelers in the past, but never this many at one time.
"We have had about four or five busloads and so many stranded in their personal cars," he said.
One bus, carrying 120 passengers, got to the tunnel Saturday but could go no further because of drifting snow.
"We got to him this morning," Cox said Sunday night.
"Everybody has pulled together," he said.
And miraculously, he said, there were no injuries.
\ Good chili beans, eh?
About seven hours after becoming stuck in drifts on Mud Pike Road in Montgomery County, Sheriff's Department Lt. Tom Whitt and his two passengers saw a man walking toward their four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Whitt asked the man if he needed help. Instead, the man was there to help the stranded deputies.
"He walked and I hollered at him and I said, `Are you OK?" Whitt said. He had a bag in his hand. He held it up and said, `I thought you might want some coffee.' "
Wayne Miller had walked from his home along a fence line and through drifts to bring them coffee, apples and "the best chili beans you had in your life."
Whitt and Deputy Gary Chandler had gotten stuck on the road trying to reach a stranded family about 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
"We were going pretty good but we got into a white-out and couldn't see," Whitt said. The two deputies and their passenger stayed in the vehicle and waited for help. They didn't realize it would take so long.
It was about 1:30 a.m. Sunday before they were freed by two employees of Marshall Concrete Products. Steve Marshall and Dan Canada had just come from digging out a Blacksburg Rescue Squad vehicle on Lusters Gate Road.
"I would have left the vehicle if I'd known I was going be there all night. . . . But the highway department said they had someone coming," Whitt said.
\ Elsewhere in New River
While Whitt was stuck at Mud Pike, The Blacksburg Rescue Squad and police were helping a bus - bound for Daytona Beach and filled with teen-agers from Canada - stuck on Prices Fork Road.
The 44 teens spent the night at the Blacksburg Rescue Squad Station, Capt. Jerry Olinger said.
Crew members fixed breakfast for them Sunday and they left the county about noon.
In Blacksburg, transit service was canceled for the weekend, but service might be resumed by this afternoon, Town Manager Ron Secrist said.
Sunday afternoon, the roof of the Lowe's store in Christiansburg collapsed, sinking to ceiling level.
\ About those trees
The weight of the snow and ice during the weekend storm toppled trees and broke tree limbs throughout the Roanoke Valley.
City Manager Herbert said Sunday tree damage was extensive in some areas.
John Arbogast, the agricultural extension agent for Roanoke, said residents should prune off the spot where the limb broke.
"They should smooth off the broken area. If the jagged cut isn't smoothed off, it could cause deterioration," he said.
Arbogast said residents may want to tie up evergreen shrubbery that has been pushed out of shape by the snow and ice.
If the shrubs are tied up, he said, they will return to their normal shape soon.
\ Snow orphans
Jan Hochheiser of Columbus, Ohio, who used to live in Roanoke, was among the travelers stranded at motels.
She came to Roanoke on Friday to visit her 12-year-old son. At first, she was confident that the blizzard wasn't going to be as bad as forecasters predicted.
She woke up Saturday morning to about a foot of snow.
"I was going back to Columbus today," she said Sunday. "Obviously, I'm not now."
She said many out-of-towners were stranded in city motels, but few restaurants were open to feed them because of the blizzard.
"One guy called Domino's [Pizza], but the deliveryman got stuck in the motel parking lot," she said. "We get snow in Columbus, but it doesn't come down this fast."
Even battle-tested snow veterans, like Botetourt County Sheriff's dispatcher Judy Drewery, were caught off guard by the power of the storm.
Drewry, who has dispatched sheriff's deputies in Botetourt County for 15 years, was a snow orphan for the night.
"I guess it was the first time I never got home," said Drewry, who spent Sunday morning sleeping on a mat on the floor of the sheriff's office.
A large snow drift had blocked the road when a deputy attempted to take her home earlier.
"I tried, you realize that," said Drewry, who admits floor-sleeping isn't the most comfortable way to go. "It's better than the alternative of staying awake or being stuck in the storm."
\ Surprised by storm
Allison Burrows, was cleaning off her convertible on Sunday afternoon to prevent the top from caving in.
"It's not going anywhere for a while, obviously, but I thought I'd try to get some snow off," she said.
"I'm lucky it didn't collapse," she said. "I stuck a yardstick out in front of the house and we got 17" inches.
She said she usually puts a board on the convertible to prevent it from caving in, but didn't bother this time.
"To tell you the truth, I didn't think this storm would be this bad," Burrows said. "I don't think a lot of people did."
Staff writers Ron Brown, Carolyn Click, Kathy Loan, Joel Turner and Lon Wagner contributed to this story.