Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 29, 1994 TAG: 9401290195
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Tom Jobes, assistant manager in Apco's Roanoke division, said the electric utility has spent about $1 million since late December combating outages caused by winter storms.
Typically, Apco spends around $750,000 a year in restoring power outages.
The past 11 months have been costly for Apco. The company's Roanoke division, which serves most of the Roanoke Valley and several Southside counties, incurred about $750,000 in repair costs during the Blizzard of '93 last March. Cleanup from a severe windstorm in June cost another $1 million.
Jobes said Apco can petition the State Corporation Commission for a rate increase if its entire Virginia operation incurs cost increases that make it necessary. "A rate increase is our last resort," he said.
Thursday's freezing rain did not help budget matters. By Friday morning, more than 14,000 Apco customers were without power. Most of those outages were scattered, as ice-laden trees tumbled into utility lines.
In addition to the nearly 200 regular workers that Apco employs, another 80 were brought from Southwest Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.
One crew working in Copper Hill along U.S. 221 spotted flames coming from a chimney of a residence Friday. An Apco repairman was the first to alert the family inside.
Apco reported that 10,200 customers still had no power by nightfall. The going was slow because the lines affected often served only a couple of customers.
By 10 p.m., Apco had brought the number down to 6,157, but were still battling weather-weary lines.
Roanoke firefighters had to rescue a woman at Virginia Western Community College from an elevator after a power outage Friday.
While Apco normally clears about 40 feet of right of way around its power lines, the weight of the ice was bending tall pine trees over onto the lines.
Apco wasn't the only company affected as trees and utility lines fell.
Cox Cable Roanoke reported 130 lines were down Friday.
Most of those lines served individual customers, but three major distribution lines fell when trees crashed and snapped utility poles.
Crews in Roanoke had responded to between 70 and 80 calls about downed trees.
"By the time we get through mopping up, we'll have several hundred trees affected," said Dan Henry, the city's urban forester.
Hardest hit were pine trees and Siberian elms, Henry said. Pine trees were bearing more weight because of their plentiful foilage. Siberian elms simply have weak limbs.
Johnny Benson, Cox's plant operations manager, said downed trees were keeping 35 of his maintenance, construction and repair personnel busy.
"There are a lot of tree limbs hanging all over the place," he said.
Unlike Thursday morning, commuters on Friday had relatively ice-free roadways. But with temperatures hovering around the freezing mark, ice still was clinging to trees and drooping from car bumpers.
The National Weather Service predicts that things will get a little better today as temperatures reach the mid-40s and the sun peeks out. But temperatures are expected to dip into the 20s again tonight.
That could mean a return to freezing precipitation.
"It's unusual to have two ice storms in a month," said Jan Jackson, a weather service meteorologist. "Maybe we'll have three."
by CNB