Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 22, 1994 TAG: 9401220186
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was the first one in nearly four days, thanks to a thick sheet of ice that had covered the runway.
The flight to Pittsburgh carried 15 passengers, but one distraught traveler - stranded in Roanoke since Monday - was left behind.
Only seconds after the USAir commuter jet rolled away, a woman in a red coat dashed up to the boarding gate.
"What am I going to do," she cried out after learning the jet had gone without her.
First the woman, who didn't want her name in the paper, was confused. Then angry. Finally she was sad, almost ready to break into tears.
To top off her plight, all of the airline's computers were down, so she wasn't immediately able to schedule another flight that would take her to her husband in Newark, N.J.
"This is just ridiculous," she snapped at the ticket agent, who was doing all he could to console her.
"Calm down," someone in the back of the line said. "We've all been here for three days."
And so they had, many of them anyway.
The airport's shutdown, the longest in recent memory, forced travelers trying to reach or leave Roanoke to use airports in Lynchburg, Charlotte, Richmond, Bristol and Greensboro, N.C.
Others just waited for the weather to break.
The National Weather Service listed Roanoke, at 34 degrees, as the one of the state's hot spots Friday afternoon. Most other cities had temperatures in the 20s.
Temperatures in the low 40s are expected today.
The airport's closing caused some disgruntlement among folks wondering why all other East Coast airportshad been operating.
"It's ridiculous, kind of small-townish," said Bill McGinnis, a marketing representative with Westinghouse Electric Co. visiting from Atlanta. He was forced to fly into the Lynchburg airport, then rent a car and drive to Charlotte to catch a flight home early Friday.
For the most part, though, folks simply accepted the delays as an uncontrollable act of nature.
Jess Newbern, CEO of Newbern-Trane in Roanoke, was forced to spend an extra night away on a business trip. He flew to Charlotte on Wednesday, only to find out the Roanoke airport was still closed.
But Newbern, who finally booked a flight into Lynchburg late Wednesday night, took it all in stride.
"I learned a long time ago to know the difference between a problem and an inconvenience," he said. "I was bored, but if that's the worst thing that's going to happen to me, then I'm a lucky man."
Someone else feeling pretty lucky Friday was Artie Otey, head of the grounds crew at Roanoke Regional Airport.
The 19-year airport veteran has worked 15 hours a day this week trying to break through layers of concrete-tough ice on the runways.
"When I saw the sun coming out that bright, I knew I was in heaven," he said.
The airport crew's most unconventional weapon against the cold was a jet-powered hot-air blower that was used to help melt the ice.
The machine, borrowed from the Charlotte Motor Speedway, arrived Thursday night.
The airport also got in a load of potassium acetate - a new chemical that is supposed to melt ice even in extremely cold weather - late Wednesday night.
"They weren't the miracle cure we hoped they would be, but they still worked real well," said airport marketing director Mark Courtney. "I'm just glad we're back open. It's been a long week."
by CNB