Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 16, 1994 TAG: 9402160166
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Water systems are just beginning to return to full pressure.
People are scratching their heads over damage caused by falling trees.
Cost estimates are being added up and could compare to, or exceed, costs for Hurricane Hugo.
Parents are wondering if their children will be spending their summer vacation in the classroom.
After all that, there was yet another ice storm disaster: freezers of food lost to powerless days.
Those hardest hit are farmers and rural residents, usually last in line to have power restored, whose food supply comes from items they have grown or raised and placed in storage.
At 10 p.m. Tuesday, 8,300 customers in Appalachian Power Co.'s Pulaski Division still had no power, down from 11,250 Tuesday afternoon.
Crews were working to restore electricity to 600 customers in Apco's Roanoke Division at 10 p.m. Tuesday, down from 900 earlier in the afternoon.
"People were mainly calling about tree damage on Monday," Norma Hill of the L.L. Brown Insurance Agency in Blacksburg said Tuesday.
"Today, it's been calls about [lost food]. It's really a problem, because there's still so many without power."
Certain insurance companies offer food protection coverage with varying deductibles, and the majority of endorsements carry a maximum claim of $500, Hill said.
"One lady, who was not covered, called to say that she lost three freezers full of food," she said. "It can run into some money."
A 12-cubic-foot freezer can hold up to 300 pounds, according to information from the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service's Roanoke office.
by CNB