ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 8, 1996 TAG: 9601100116
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
One of the East's worst snowstorms in 70 years blew up blizzard conditions Sunday, piling up knee-deep snow that shut down airports, made truckers give up and even closed the doors at Wal-Mart. Thousands were without heat and light.
``We are stranded big-time,'' said Neva Runyon at remote Hardy in the hills of eastern Kentucky. About 18 inches of snow was on the ground by midday, and a deputy had to hike to her house with a delivery of special formula for her 5-month-old son.
``We just didn't know it was going to get this bad,'' she said.
Thousands of travelers were stranded at airports, bus terminals and highway rest stops. USAir said it canceled about 1,100 flights serving airports from Washington north to Boston.
``We're stuck wherever we're at,'' said trucker Johnny Vollrath, idling his big rig at a service station along Interstate 64 in West Virginia. ``It's real bad. ... We're stuck in the truck stop or the Kmart parking lot, bored to death.''
States of emergency were declared in all or parts of Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Delaware.
Gov. Tom Ridge ordered all roadways in 47 central and eastern Pennsylvania counties shut down from 10 p.m. Sunday until noon Monday. Only emergency vehicles, cars taking physicians or utility employees to work, road crews, and oil and milk deliveries were allowed.
At least nine deaths were blamed on the storm, including five in Kentucky, two each in Ohio and West Virginia, and one each in Washington, Virginia, Pennsylvania and South and North Carolina.
The snow piled up as an intense low pressure area sucked in moisture from the Atlantic and combined it with arctic cold. Blizzard and heavy snow warnings were posted from Kentucky into Connecticut, the National Weather Service said.
Western North Carolina had the heaviest snow by midday with 28 inches in Avery County. One to 2 feet of snow fell by noon in southern West Virginia, with 3 feet possible by this morning.
Many of North Carolina's western counties were without electricity because of sleet and freezing rain. About 9,000 customers lost service in South Carolina.
Some southern West Virginia roads drifted over as fast as they could be plowed, and could be closed for days, said highway worker James Lusk in Mercer County. ``The snow is just about too deep on these secondary roads for trucks to push,'' he said.
More than 2 feet was likely in Northern Virginia, Washington and Maryland. There hadn't been that much snow in the area since January 1922, when 24.7 inches fell at Baltimore, the weather service said.
In Washington, President Clinton had to trudge through drifts to church. Phil Gramm and Bob Dole couldn't get out to campaign. And the Smithsonian Institution - just reopened - had to close again.
The blizzard paralyzed the nation's capital. Planes weren't landing or leaving. Cab companies had two- to four-hour backups. And downtown, just a few hardy souls struggled by, huddled in hats and scarves.
Norwegians were the sole sightseers.
The president bundled up in jeans, a plaid shirt, cap and overcoat to tromp with his wife through snow drifts to St. John's Church, near the White House. But a press van that tried to follow got stuck in the snow.
``This is almost the snowfall of the century,'' said Mike LaCivita of the state emergency agency in Virginia.
Snow fell all the way south into Georgia and northern Alabama, where ice and snow closed I-65 around Birmingham for hours during the morning.
Most airlines canceled or reduced Sunday flights into Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Newark, and rerouted international flights. Washington's National airport closed, and Dulles had only one runway open; New York's Kennedy and LaGuardia airports both closed.
The only planes that got out of Baltimore-Washington International during the morning were two charter flights, headed to the Bahamas and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, said spokeswoman Adrian Walker-Pittman.
About 600 passengers were stranded at a Greyhound Lines Inc. bus terminal in Richmond, Va., with some sleeping on buses.
Tractor-trailer rigs and buses were ordered off the West Virginia Turnpike through the rugged southern part of the state, and many voluntarily pulled off other major highways.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 linesby CNB