ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601090026
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
THE WIND HOWLED and the snow drifted, ending the fun for skiers stranded atop Cheat Mountain.
Pity the Roanoke Ski Club.
They got snowed in at a ski resort.
Members convoyed their cars Friday to Snowshoe-Silver Creek in West Virginia. Three feet of snow fell over the weekend, and they couldn't get their cars out of the resort, atop Cheat Mountain.
Due back Sunday, most of them returned Monday night.
Like the Virginia Tech fans stranded in New Orleans after the Sugar Bowl, it wasn't as much fun as it sounds.
The wind howled and the snow drifted so furiously that it kept skiers like Vicki Simmons and her 9-year-old daughter, Andria, off the slopes after Saturday. Others braved the storm.
"One got picked up by the wind and blown about 10 feet down the slope," Simmons said.
Sunday night was magical, though. "The snow looked like that fake snow at the mall that they put sparkles on," she said.
- MARY BISHOP
So much for being a Good Samaritan.
James Lee Scales had parked his 1989 Pontiac Bonneville on 13th Street Southwest to check on an elderly friend. As he was driving away Monday morning, the engine caught fire.
Firefighters fought their way onto the snow-clogged little street and doused the flames. The front end of Scales' car was destroyed.
When the firefighters tried to leave, their truck became stuck in the snow and they had to wait for a wrecker to pull them out.
- MARY BISHOP
Blue Ridge Parkway ranger Peter Givens was the only person at parkway offices here Monday.
The parkway is closed but probably not unused, he said. Cross-country skiers love it when traffic is barred from the parkway, and snowmobilers are allowed on the stretch between U.S. 220 and 221 - the only place where it's permitted on the entire parkway.
- MARY BISHOP
With idle crowds milling restlessly outside their doors, the Grandin Theatre decided to let them in during the afternoons. The theater's matinees, usually reserved for weekends, will run every day this week until schools reopen.
- JAN VERTEFEUILLE
Across the region, stores were running out of bread. Milk was scarce, and shopkeepers were worried about beer supplies. Grocery trucks were having trouble getting across snow-covered streets and reaching the stores.
An employee at the Merita Bakery said they would be baking bread again this morning. A beer distributor said his trucks would roll again, but only when the roads are safe.
Sue Darr at the Mick-Or-Mack on Memorial Avenue said her customers are doing a lot of baking, judging by their purchases.
"They're buying Nestle's chocolate chips, the morsels, things like that."
She said with a sigh, "I wish I was home getting fat."
- MARY BISHOP
While most Roanoke Valley bars and restaurants were closed Monday, the Community Inn on Grandin Road was rocking.
"Yes, we're open. We're packed," a weary waitress said. "They're eating, eating, eating. We had to go get more french fries, and we had to go to the bakery and get more bread because they weren't delivering. This place has been wild for three days."
- MARY BISHOP
LENGTH: Medium: 74 linesby CNB