Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 13, 1994 TAG: 9402130125
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS and RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Loss of electrical service forced two retirement facilities to move residents elsewhere, and created a host of other woes.
About 130 residents of Warm Hearth Village were taken to the Blacksburg Holiday Inn Saturday and set up in the motel's banquet room.
"We have no idea how long we'll be here," said John Sankey, Warm Hearth Village president.
For four hours, Blacksburg Transit buses ferried Warm Hearth residents, some in wheelchairs, to the impromptu shelter.
"It's gone very smoothly," said Sankey, who told the residents to bring medicine, water and bedding with them. They'll have to sleep on floor mats.
"It could be days," he said. "We're prepared for the worst."
In Christiansburg, 60 elderly people remained at the Christiansburg Fire Department after being forced to evacuate the English Meadow retirement home.
A fallen tree knocked out power and caused a small fire at the facility Friday. A church bus and the Christiansburg Rescue Squad moved English Meadow residents across town.
Town officials provided army cots for the refugees. "It's fine," said 69-year-old Lydia Turman, reclining on one of the cots in the fire department's social hall.
"We're getting a little army life," she added. "Like we were out camping."
Carol Bower, English Meadow's director, said one elderly resident was hospitalized after becoming ill after the move. Otherwise, she said, "I think they handled it beautifully."
Staff members had moved most of English Meadow's refrigerated food supplies to the Fire Department's kitchen by Saturday afternoon. But Bower was concerned that some food left behind might spoil if the power wasn't restored soon.
The Red Cross emergency shelter in the gymnasium of Blacksburg Middle School housed about 20 people Friday night. They slept on wrestling mats.
"I think we'll see a whole lot more tonight," said Jim Hain, Montgomery County's Red Cross chairman.
Red Cross volunteers, including members of Virginia Tech's Alpha Delta Pi sorority, were seeing to the needs of shelter residents who had left their cold, dark houses.
Emergency shelters also were set up at fire houses in Riner and McCoy. "We're here for as long as we're needed," Hain said.
"We could do without the crisis to find out how many good Samaritans we have. And this town is full of them," said Capt. William Brown, Blacksburg's acting police chief.
Traffic lights were out at some major intersections. Lines were long at fast-food drive-up windows. Some convenience stores ran out of food.
Two generators hummed loudly on the porch of the White Creek Market in Shawsville. Owner Russell Shreve hooked up his cash register. The rest of the store was dark.
"The ice cream will hold for another four or five hours as long as nobody opens this up," he said, patting a freezer.
The store's gasoline pumps were out, too, but Shreve worried about his inability to sell kerosene from another tank.
"People can do without gasoline, but heat's another thing," he said.
Lack of heat drove many New River Valley residents to temporary quarters at motels such as the Blacksburg Marriott.
"We were full last night, and we'll be full again tonight," said Beth Ifju, the motel's marketing director. "We've got people just crying for rooms."
The same clamor was heard at two Radford motels: the Best Western Inn and Comfort Inn, both owned by Guests Inc. - despite no electricity for part of the past two days at either place.
Every one of the 104 rooms at both motels was filled. "I could sell 104 more if I had them," said Jimmy Munsey, general manager of the Comfort Inn.
Many of the hotels' guests were in town for the Virginia Senior Championship Swim Meet at Radford University's Dedmon Center Natatorium, which was without electricity on Friday.
The meet went on as scheduled, with nearly 300 swimmers from across the state competing under the indoor pool's Teflon roof, which allows in ample light during the day. The power came back on late Friday.
Radford's men's basketball game with UNC Asheville was to be played as scheduled Saturday night, even though the UNC Asheville team had left its lodgings in the Radford Best Western because of the power outage.
Shortly after the team pulled up stakes Friday and drove to a motel in Wytheville, the lights came back on in Radford.
A member of the team's traveling party "called us back and asked if we still had their rooms," said Munsey. "I said `I'm sorry, but we've already cleaned them and resold them.' "
by CNB