Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 11, 1994 TAG: 9402110176
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN AND TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Residents and public utility companies braced for what could be the heaviest downpour of freezing precipitation this winter.
A layer of ice was on the ground in the Roanoke and New River valleys Thursday afternoon and larger accumulations were expected through today. The National Weather Service was predicting up to 2 inches of freezing rain and sleet between Thursday night and this afternoon.
The Weather Service forecast calls for temperatures to stay in the lower 30s today with a near 100 percent chance of precipitation.
If that prediction holds, it would just about double the amount of ice dumped on the region by a Jan. 27 ice storm, which brought hundreds of trees and power lines to the breaking point, leaving thousands of residents without electricity.
Appalachian Power Co. crews started gearing up for the storm Thursday morning after receiving assurance from weather forecasters that "it could be bad."
Apco's crews have become battle-weary this winter, as ice and record-low temperatures pushed electrical power consumption to the limit.
"There's no frenzy," said Victoria Ratcliff, an Apco spokeswoman. "It's been practiced and practiced."
Apco employees spent most of Thursday resupplying and putting chains on trucks. Ratcliff said crews would be dispatched to strategic locations before icy roads make remote secondary highways inaccessible.
Private contractors, used when Apco crews are overwhelmed with outages, were put on standby.
No major outages had occurred Thursday night, and police and sheriff's departments reported only a few minor accidents.
Interstate 81 was passable, but ice was beginning to accumulate in the evening, according to the state police. Secondary roads were covered with ice, police said, and primary roads were becoming hazardous.
Many businesses, schools and governmental offices closed early, including Virginia Tech.
Jan Jackson, a meteorologist for the Weather Service, said low-circulating frigid air pushed southward by an arctic high-pressure system was covering Western Virginia on Thursday night.
Above the cold air was a stream of warm, moist air traveling northward from the Gulf of Mexico.
When the two fronts collide, he said, precipitation will drop through the atmosphere onto the cold ground. Temperatures are expected to remain below freezing until Saturday, when the Weather Service forecasts partly sunny skies and highs in the 40s.
At Roanoke Regional Airport, crews were applying chemicals to the runways by Thursday afternoon.
"We're having what I call snizzle," said Mark Courtney, an airport spokesman. "That's sleet and drizzle."
Courtney said numerous flights had been canceled or delayed by Thursday afternoon. The airport was open Thursday night.
At Roanoke Memorial Hospital, employees hoped to be ready for whatever the weather might bring.
Vance Whitfield, a hospital spokesman, said the hospital had 800 bags of salt and 9,000 tons of chemicals on hand to combat ice.
Four tons of gravel were on standby in case parking lots and driveways become slippery.
"We're in excellent shape," Whitfield said. "We going to do everything we can to keep areas open to the public."
And the public apparently was working to keep areas open, too. Several hardware stores reported a Thursday afternoon rush of customers purchasing salt and other snow removal items.
Molly Mangan, public relations assistant for Akzo Salt Inc., said the company definitely isn't hurting for business this winter.
"We can't get the salt out quick enough," she said.
Mangan said Akzo - the world's largest producer of rock salt, headquarted in Clarks Summit, Pa. - has shipped more than 3 million tons of salt since January to more than 5,000 localities, most east of the Mississippi. A salt shipment of 1.2 million pounds is on its way to Roanoke to be used by the Virginia Department of Transportation, she said. Akzo is one of the department's two major salt suppliers.
"We've been in business since 1901, and everybody says there's never been anything like this," Mangan said.
by CNB