Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 15, 1994 TAG: 9402150278
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MERRIMAC LENGTH: Medium
Appalachian Power Co. officials estimated that all but about 8,100 customers in the Montgomery-Floyd area had electricity by Monday morning. In Pulaski County, about 3.800 customers were still without power while 1,500 waited in Giles County.
Throughout the district, which also includes Wythe and Carroll counties, families in 17,500 homes endured their fourth day without coffee or hot showers. This number accounted for almost 20 percent of the 93,000 people across the state still waiting for service to be restored.
While the more populated areas in Christiansburg and Blacksburg were generally humming with electricity, there were isolated outages. Just because your neighbor had power didn't mean you did.
The fact that the more populated areas were back on the power system was little comfort to folks in the rural stretches of Floyd and Montgomery counties - such as Merrimac, Prices Fork, McCoy, Pilot and Willis - where residents faced their fourth day without electricity or hot water. Just taking a shower at a friend's house seemed a luxury.
Local governments in Radford and the counties of Montgomery, Pulaski and Floyd began assessing damages and declaring states of emergency.
Larry Linkous, chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, signed a declaration of local emergency Monday. That resolution may help the county receive emergency funds as reimbursement for critical services such as overtime for law enforcement officers and for the expense of clearing debris.
For Dale McCoy and his father, Tommy McCoy, the lack of electricity was more than just a personal inconvenience. It was affecting their livelihood. They operate McCoy's Auto Repair in McCoy.
At midday Monday, the father and son were rigging a generator in hopes of getting the garage operating.
"We don't have heat. We don't have water," Dale McCoy said. Even trying to flush the toilet was an ordeal.
Snow came in handy in melted form for flushing toilets and in frozen form for storing food.
"I've got all the food out packed behind the house," McCoy said.
The McCoys, in their efforts to reopen their garage, had searched all the way to Greensboro for generators before finding one they could borrow from a friend in town. The friend was lucky enough to have his power restored.
For Dale McCoy, this lack of even the most basic amenities couldn't have come at a worse time.
His wife is pregnant and is due to deliver any time. For Tommy McCoy, it's important to get the electricity back, but he also misses his cable television about as much.
"I hope this works," Tommy McCoy said as he and his son started the generator.
The garage's overhead fluorescent lights flickered briefly, but the generator stalled. Perhaps it will work if the machine warms up a while, they hoped.
Meanwhile, the McCoys' neighbors also waited for their electricity to be restored.
John Nowlin, an Apco employee, said crews from West Virginia have helped lighten the load on weary local Apco workers.
"The days are all running together," Nowlin said.
Apco workers who take time for a dinner break at area restaurants are receiving mixed reactions from the public. Some folks want to send them to the front of the line while others - probably frazzled after days without power or hot water - begrudge them a sit-down meal.
Workers from Monongahela Power in Fairmont, W.Va., arrived in Montgomery County about 2 a.m. Monday and began working at 10 a.m., tackling the Merrimac, Prices Fork and McCoy areas as well as the Pilot community and Floyd County.
Frustrated customers still without power should realize all the work just can't be done at once.
"There are different circuits. ... It's just a matter of picking them up one by one. We can't get them all at one time," Nowlin said.
As the New River Valley went back to work Monday, local governments acted on state-of-emergency resolutions.
In Montgomery County, the declaration was expected to be affirmed by the entire board at its Monday meeting. Pulaski supervisors were expected to meet today.
The Virginia Department of Emergency Services said Monday that state and federal officials had conducted an aerial flyover of the state for a "broad brush view of the damage."
by CNB