ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996               TAG: 9601090031
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE AND DAN CASEY STAFF WRITERS 
note: above 


SNOW AT WORST; PEOPLE AT BEST

STORES WERE CLOSED and roads were impassible. But an army of volunteers in four-wheel-drive vehicles made sure that those who really needed to go somewhere got there.

As people began to dig themselves out Monday to return to their normal routine, they discovered that the elements that make up a normal routine were nowhere to be found.

Nearly all banks, restaurants and stores were closed. The airport and doctors' offices were also shut down.

The planes and trucks that deliver the mail didn't make it to Roanoke, so there was little mail to deliver.

Those who hadn't prepared were saved by a hodgepodge of convenience stores that stayed open to supply the basics - if the stores hadn't run out.

Mary Patton, a Postal Service customer relations coordinator, said she hoped more mail would begin arriving Monday night and that customers would start seeing some in their mailboxes today.

The Roanoke Regional Airport planned to reopen at 10 this morning if enough snow could be removed from runways and carted off.

The weekend's astonishing snowfall brought out the best in people. Owners of four-wheel-drive vehicles offered their services to local governments, neighbors helped dig each other out, and complete strangers stopped to give stuck motorists a push. It was almost fun.

Roanoke and Roanoke County emergency response crews were able to cope with emergencies in part because dozens of four-wheel drive owners, answering television and radio appeals, put themselves and their vehicles at the disposal of dispatchers.

The four-wheelers carried doctors and nurses to hospitals and ferried nursing home employees to work. Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem employees, meanwhile, picked up and delivered medicine to diabetics and heart patients who had run out.

One of the volunteers was Bo Chagnon, a 50-year-old professional musician who lives in Wasena.

Chagnon put down his guitar, hopped in his four-wheel-drive Toyota and ferried medical workers according to instructions from the Roanoke Emergency Services department.

He had made three runs by midday Monday, and was heading out the door for more after a quick lunch break.

"I was raised in New Hampshire, and I'm comfortable driving in this type of weather," Chagnon said. "It's the joy of doing it. I know I'll feel good about it afterward."

Another was Tom Duncan, 34, of Raleigh Court, who owns a Chevrolet Suburban. He chalks up the rides he gave Monday to "humanitarian instinct."

"I've done five trips today - a whole family to Lewis Gale, a dialysis patient out to Plantation Road, another one to the shelter," he said. "There's a lot of people out there whose needs don't stop when the weather is prohibitive."

At the Roanoke Airport Marriott, the restaurant was taking care of more than just that hotel's guests. At least two nearby motels don't have restaurants, and guests were getting tired of eating out of the vending machines. Sunday, the Marriott started shuttling those people over to its restaurant by van, while some came in on foot.

Since a number of banquets had to be canceled Monday and likely would be again today, the kitchen was well-stocked, general manager Herman Turk said. Snowplow operators at the airport also came in for lunch Monday.

About 50 employees stayed overnight to keep the place staffed, he said. "One of the beauties of having guest rooms is you have plenty of room to house employees."

Workers slept overnight at the Hotel Roanoke, too. Guests in about 70 rooms have stayed a little longer than they had planned, including participants at a sales convention who were supposed to leave Sunday.

"We're just keeping them warm and fed," said Walter Crawford, assistant front office manager.

At Revco's Tower Mall location, the pharmacy was filling prescriptions for customers from any of their stores who needed them; the store was also trying to help people with prescriptions from other drug stores. The Towers store, a 24-hour operation, was the only Revco open in the area.

"We're doing prescriptions for everybody and their grandmother," pharmacy technician Melanie Morris said Monday afternoon. "I'm surprised I have any hair left."

She said other Revcos planned to reopen today.

Other stores likely will begin reopening to allow shoppers to restock. But if you were caught without a shovel or rock salt, you may be out of luck. The only open hardware store that could be located Monday had just sold its last snow shovel.

Bob Falls, one of the owners of Buchanan Hardware Co., said he had sold about 75 shovels since Saturday and hoped for more on a truck coming Wednesday.

"I just wish I had the merchandise," Falls said. But he added, "I've got beaucoup plastic sleds and plenty of ice melter."

Utility service was fairly unhampered by the storm, which dumped lots of snow - but no ice.

The biggest problem the storm created for crews of Roanoke Gas Co. was simply in getting to customers with problems, said Art Pendleton, vice president of operations.

Crews for American Electric Power Co - formerly Appalachian Power - also had trouble getting to the few places where power was out. The company had only 249 customers without power in its Central Virginia region - which includes the areas around Roanoke and Lynchburg - Monday morning, with most of those outages in the Boones Mill and Goodview areas of Franklin and Bedford County. Power had been restored to all but 100 customers by noon, AEP spokeswoman Victoria Ratcliff said.

AEP had more problems in far Southwest Virginia, where a wet snow fell, Ratcliff said. There, 6,500 customers were without power.

Norfolk Southern's trains were all running Monday but a little more slowly in some places because of the snow. One of the biggest problems the railroad had was getting train crews into work in some areas, Rick Harris, an NS spokesman, said.

Norfolk Southern crews were working Monday to clean up a derailment of grain cars on the NS line in Montgomery County's Ellett Valley that ocurred early Sunday morning. Harris said the railroad hasn't determined yet if the derailment was due to the weather.

Even tow trucks had trouble.

Jeff Hummel, branch manager of the American Automobile Association in Roanoke, was the only one in the office Monday, and he said AAA was handling only emergency calls, "if and when we can get to them."

At Brandon Service Center, which offers 24-hour towing, all three trucks were idle Monday.

"We can't get anywhere, either," worker Jay Pate said. The station shut down Saturday when the storm began; Pate said it expected to be busy today, pulling cars out of snowdrifts.

A city shelter at the Roanoke Civic Center that housed only two people Sunday night saw its number of clients grow to 10 by Monday afternoon.

Most were people who had run out of fuel oil or whose furnaces had quit, said Michelle Bono, a city spokeswoman.

Hospitals aside, most medical offices were closed Monday. The exceptions were dialysis centers.

"All but two of the staff members came in," nurse Peggy Newberry said at Crystal Springs Dialysis on McClanahan Street. The center has 60 regular patients who need treatment three times each week.

The center saw nearly a full contingent of 30 patients Monday, most of whom arrived by ambulance, Newberry said.

Staff writers Greg Edwards, S.D. Harrington and Betty Hayden contributed to this story.


LENGTH: Long  :  143 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:   1. DON PETERSEN/Staff Chateau Mont and Hunting Hills 

Place in Roanoke County look like a ski resort. color

2. STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff Cows head for their feed Monday

morning on a farm on West Virginia 39 in Pocahontas County, W.Va.

color

3. graphic - Snowfall of the Century color STAFF

by CNB