
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 6, 1994                   TAG: 9401060161
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SMITHTON, PA.                                LENGTH: Medium

SNOWED IN, THEY DON'T DIG IT

Truckers would rather be on the road again, but 2 feet of snow left them without a choice Wednesday. A logjam of snowbound rigs at an interstate exit blocked a ramp, stranding about 200 drivers at a truck stop.

"I'm looking out here, and I'm not going anywhere for a while," said trucker Gene Hinchey of Willingboro, N.J. "My dispatcher doesn't even believe it."

Hinchey had another trucker snap a photo for proof of the powerful nor'easter that spread snow from North Carolina to Maine from late Monday through Tuesday. More than 30 inches fell in some areas of the central Appalachians and upper Ohio Valley.

The storm was followed Wednesday by strong wind that piled up drifts higher than some people are tall.

The heavy, wet snow downed tree limbs and power lines, blacking out thousands of customers. In hardest-hit West Virginia, about 95,000 customers remained without electricity Wednesday.

Outside the Smithton truck stop along Interstate 70 about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh, three rigs were jackknifed and others bogged down. Some truckers had been there since Monday, when the snow began falling and forecasters warned of heavy accumulations.

"They are just eating, sleeping, drinking coffee and bitching," clerk Maxine Rechichar said of the stranded truckers.

"They are sleeping in their trucks. They are sleeping on the floor and in the chairs in our lounge."

Wreckers finally got some of the rigs to budge Wednesday and worked to clear the way.

About 30 miles south of the truck stop in Waynesburg, where 33 inches fell, two broadcasters were buried inside their studio. Their supervisor's husband trudged through deep drifts to take them a bag of food. They were unable to get home, so they stayed inside for the time being and took turns on the air.

"Right outside my studio window, the snow is so high - and I'm 6 feet tall - the snow would be above my head if I jumped into it. I'd drown in snow," WANB news director Dave Shinsky said by phone.

The storm closed schools Tuesday in 16 states from North Carolina to Maine, and many remained closed Wednesday as crews struggled to clear roads. At least 13 deaths had been blamed on the storm.

The snow accumulation in many areas was the most since last March's crippling blizzard.

by CNB