Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 12, 1994 TAG: 9402120049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The National Weather Service is hoping for a gentle thaw of the nearly 3 inches of frozen precipitation that was dumped on Western Virginia on Thursday and Friday.
If the temperature rises too quickly, streams throughout the region could spill out of their banks.
Predictions call for the Roanoke River to be between 7 and 9 feet, close to the flood stage of 10 feet.
Roanoke officials said the river would have to top the 13-foot mark to create serious problems.
The forecast called for temperatures to rise into the lower 40s today.
Wanda Reed, Roanoke's emergency services manager, said her office was keeping track of rising water Friday downtown, where ice-clogged storm drains and automobile traffic were creating problems.
"We have had water come up in the street, but it has gone down," Reed said. "If we have to barricade the streets, we'll do that to keep water out of businesses."
About a foot of water was at Orange and Courtland avenues Northwest by 7 a.m. Friday after ice blocked a storm drain. Between 400 and 500 storm drains had to be unclogged when city crews cleared streets Friday.
In Roanoke County, low-lying creeks that normally flood were up to full banks by 5 p.m. Friday.
The latest ice storm lived up to predictions that it could be the worst of the winter.
The 3 inches of precipitation - mostly sleet - dumped about three times more ice than a Jan. 27 storm that also brought trees down onto power lines.
Dan Henry, Roanoke's urban forester, said the effects of Friday's storm could be even more long-lasting.
By 4 p.m., the city had received calls about 100 broken trees. Henry said well over 1,000 trees had been damaged by the storm.
Henry said that at least 30 streets had been blocked by fallen trees at some time during the day.
Downed trees were a problem in the New River Valley, too. Dan Brugh, resident engineer with the Virginia Department of Transportation in Christiansburg, said five outside crews had been hired to complement department crews working at snow and tree removal.
"Any of the secondary roads you take . . . every turn you take, you've got trees in the road," Brugh said. "We're going to spend the weekend cutting trees."
The department was a spectator in the climatological tug-of-war between the need for a slow thaw and the potential for flooding.
VDOT was on red alert as its road-clearing chemicals became dangerously low.
As of Thursday morning, the department's office in Salem was reporting it had about 8,500 tons of salt available - less than a one-day supply.
Bill Worrell, a department spokesman from Richmond, said the Salem District was expecting 600 tons of new salt, but it won't be delivered until Thursday.
Road crews were trying to stretch existing salt by mixing it with sand, Worrell said.
Throughout the region, water was gathering in roadways as ice melted and had no place to go.
The worst flooding problems were in the counties of Washington, Smyth, Russell, Buchanan, Lee, Scott, Wise and Dickenson in Southwest Virginia.
The winter storm played havoc with Friday's mail delivery, too.
No mail was received from the distribution center in Roanoke for delivery in many localities to the west. Many post office buildings were closed, anyway, because of a lack of power.
"We're getting it to all the offices we can possibly reach," said Richard Wessel, manager of the mail processing center in Roanoke. Some of the contractors, he said, "are coming back and running extra trips to try and get it."
The volume of mail was light because it could not be flown in from Washington, D.C., and elsewhere on the East Coast.
Despite all that, Wessel said, the storm last March posed more mail delivery problems than this one.
"This is definitely not the worst, but it is a real nightmare," he said.
The Roanoke Times & World-News could not be delivered on some routes Friday. Customers who experience delivery problems should call the newspaper's customer service center, 981-3211.
Staff writers Stephen Foster and Paul Dellinger contributed information to this report.
by CNB