Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 12, 1994 TAG: 9402120188
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY and TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"It's like the Western front during World War II," said A.B. Broyles, a weather watcher from Christiansburg - where almost the entire town was blacked out. Trees snapped like gunshots. Power lines fell like wounded. Assembly lines stopped.
Rhea B. Lawrence of Marion made a similar comparison. Between Smyth County Community Hospital and Hungry Mother State Park, it "looks like a battlefield," he said. "I'll bet there's 30 or 40 trees, all broken. . . . It's about like Hugo, as far as timber being torn up. Just about anybody that's got a tree has got some damage."
Ice- and snow-covered roads, flooding and extensive power outages prompted Gov. George Allen to declare a state of emergency Friday night for the central, western, southwestern and northern regions of Virginia.
"Widespread power outages and flooding continues to plague the state and I want to ensure we are fully supportive of our affected communities," Allen said in a statement.
In response to the emergency declaration, the state Department of Emergency Services called extra staff members to its Emergency Operations Center in Richmond to handle telephone calls and coordinate emergency efforts across the state, said Mike Lacivita, public relations manager for the department.
Appalachian Power Co. crews were out beginning early Friday, but the devastating toll from ice-laden power lines and falling tree limbs meant some people would be without electricity well into the weekend.
Glenda Wohlford, administrative assistant for Apco's Pulaski Division, said the storm cut power to 45,000 of the utility's more than 100,000 customers in the New River Valley and Carroll, Wythe, Grayson and Bland counties.
"It's right up there with Hugo," Wohlford said. "It may even be worse."
Though main line service should be restored by today or Sunday, service to some secondary lines may not be restored until next week, Wohlford said.
In Montgomery County, sheriff's office dispatchers were taking calls from concerned residents and faxing outage reports to Apco, said Chief Deputy Dan Haga. A declaration of emergency was announced by the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office due to damage caused by fallen trees.
Pulaski County citizens were being urged to check on their neighbors, conserve water due to drawdowns at power plants, and call emergency phone numbers only when immediate service is needed.
Water conservation also was being requested of Blacksburg residents.
Several shelters were opened in the New River Valley, including Blacksburg Middle School and St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Christiansburg. Also, the Christiansburg Fire Department opened its station to residents from the English Meadow Retirement Center. A fire was ignited in the center's attic Friday morning when a tree fell, snapped a power line and came to rest on the building's roof.
Toby Eaton, division manager for Apco's Roanoke division, said 21,000 of 105,000 customers in the Roanoke area were without power at 7 p.m. Friday. Eaton said power probably would not be restored to many of the customers until today at the earliest.
At 10 p.m., Apco had restored power to 6,000 customers in the Roanoke area, according to Tom Jobes, assistant division manager. Crews from an Apco sister company in Ohio were en route Friday night to help restore power to the remaining customers today, Jobes said.
In Franklin County, 2,800 customers were without power late Friday. The number had risen from an earlier report of 2,500, Jobes said.
"This storm is so widespread, we're having problems getting help from additional crews," he said. "We think we'll have some help, though."
Eaton said Apco will continue to staff the company's phone service around the clock.
Apco's Roanoke division covers Craig, Roanoke, Bedford, Franklin, Henry and Patrick counties, a portion of Botetourt County and the city of Roanoke.
In Salem, fallen trees robbed about 2,000 residents of electricity.
All but 250 had their power restored by 5 p.m., said Doug Smith, a spokesman for the Salem Electric Co.
Officials opened the Salem Civic Center as an emergency shelter for residents without heat.
The power outages meant people with electric heat and stoves were forced to rely on fireplaces, kerosene heaters, extra sweaters and camping stoves for warmth and cooking.
Power outages left as many as 200 homes in Roanoke without water when the city lost power to five pumping stations and two wells.
Virginia Tech closed for the second time this year. Radford University also closed.
As the drizzle continued into the afternoon Friday, it was difficult to find things as commonplace as gasoline for a truck or a hamburger for a grumbling belly.
At the McDonald's in Christiansburg near Interstate 81, cars and trucks were lined up around the building in a 15-minute backlog of fast-food orders.
Christiansburg resident Tony Scaggs, clad in bib overalls and a cap, stood patiently beside his Ford F-150 custom truck at the Texaco Food Mart on North Franklin Street. He'd just started to fill the tank when the power went out and the pump stopped. He was waiting to see if it would come back on.
People had a hard time finding money to pay for goods at the few stores that were open. Banks closed and, because of the power outages, automatic teller machines were out of service.
Utility lines weren't the only victims of falling limbs. Neil O'Rourke, a 21-year-old college student from Maryland who was visiting his girlfriend at Tech, came outside to find his 5-month-old Honda Civic partially covered by a fallen tree.
Standing near Lee Hall on the Tech campus, O'Rourke and a friend dug out his car, which escaped damage. "There's half an inch of ice [on the car] the tree had to chip off before it could do anything," he said. "It's the best coat of wax you could have, I guess."
Though the foul weather amounted to an impromptu holiday for schoolchildren and their teachers, college students and their professors, for others it was another day of work.
Alvin Underwood, for instance, picked up a garbage can and hurled its contents into the Bob's Refuse Service truck beside him on Edgewood Avenue in Blacksburg.
"We're as dependable as the mailman," Underwood said.
Staff writers Ron Brown, Stephen Foster, Kathy Loan, Madelyn Rosenberg, M.J. Dougherty, Ralph Berrier Jr., Ken Davis and Paul Dellinger contributed information to this report.
by CNB