Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 17, 1994 TAG: 9402170159
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
We cringed as we listened to limbs ripped from tree trunks, cracking like gunfire and crashing to the ground in an explosion of ice and splintered wood. It felt like we were under siege.
It's over now. The days are warmer, breaking the icy spell that held our trees and shrubs in a strange and beautiful crystalline world for three days.
Now for the aftermath. Twigs, branches, limbs and whole trees litter Southwest Virginia's streets, highways, parks, hiking trails and campgrounds.
"It's a mess," said Richard Morefield, district ranger for the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Officials have closed almost the entire parkway, from the Shenandoah Valley into North Carolina, except for a small section around Asheville.
To anyone driving the scenic route now, "It would look like a war zone," Morefield said. He and several other park officials surveyed the damage along the 470-mile road by helicopter Tuesday.
The damage could equal or surpass that done by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, he said. "We have an awful lot of trees down," as well as broken limbs hanging over the road and unstable trees that must be removed.
The area hit hardest was from Bent Mountain in Floyd County to the north. In some places, 100 or more trees have fallen across the road within one mile, Morefield said.
Parkway officials have yet to assess the cost of cleanup, which could take weeks. Several inches of ice still cover parts of the highway, complicating efforts.
Morefield said he hopes to have the Roanoke Valley stretch of the parkway opened within a week.
Come spring and summer, parkway visitors probably won't notice the extent of the damage, masked by new growth, Morefield said.
"Nature has a way of covering things up," he said.
It has had a lot of practice. Ice damage is fairly common in this region, which is one reason trees do not grow as tall and old as out West, said Shepard Zedaker, forestry professor at Virginia Tech.
"So they have adapted. They can lose a lot of limbs and don't die," Zedaker said.
Some trees handle the stress better than others. Spruces and firs are built for bad weather; their tall, slender shape allows them to shed snow and ice better than pines and hardwoods.
Also, each species has a different cell structure that determines the strength and flexibility of the wood, Zedaker said. Sugar maples, a strong species, grow naturally in high elevations and so withstand ice storms better than some other species.
"But looking around town, I don't really see a good pattern that's jumping out at me," he said. It was the worst ice damage Zedaker has seen here in almost 15 years.
Trees that were healthy and vigorous before the storm likely will survive, even if they lost half their branches, he said. Old, "weepy" probably will not make it.
In the Jefferson National Forest, a preliminary assessment showed bad damage in the Glenwood and New Castle ranger districts. In the Wythe district, whole pockets of uprooted trees left what look like "mini-clear-cuts," said spokesman Dave Olson.
He and several rangers plan to fly over the forest Friday to get a better look. But that will not reveal the extent of damage to hiking and horse trails, campgrounds and picnic areas, Olson said.
"It'll be a big job all summer" to clean debris off the almost 1,000 miles of trails.
And back in the city, Roanoke arborist Dan Henry said it will take weeks to clean up city streets, parks and other property.
Siberian elms did not fare well. They are weak and not indigenous to this area, Henry said. "Anywhere you can find a Siberian elm, you can find a pile of branches."
But most of the ornamental and shade trees the city has planted in public places were high quality. A quick pruning should take care of them, Henry said.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***