ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 10, 1996 TAG: 9601100081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
HELP! Four people snowbound on a mountaintop with 136 hungry animals.
David Jobe finally rode off the mountain Tuesday afternoon, dying for a hot shower, clean duds and fresh grub.
He and three co-workers at Mill Mountain Zoo were stuck there for two days when snowplows were unable to clear the mountain road.
They woke up often during the cold nights to thaw cage locks, sledgehammer ice off the animals' water and make sure snowdrifts didn't create ramps so lighter creatures could jump their fences.
Oscar Meyer and Gregory, the Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, and white-naped cranes Maestro and Victoria didn't like the snow and wouldn't come out of their houses.
Unbothered were Ruby, the Siberian tiger, the white-tailed deer, the red pandas and other Northern Hemisphere animals. Ali-Boo, the Arctic fox, was in his element. "You know it's cold when he's in his shelter and his back is to the door," said conservation coordinator Laurie Spangler. Ali-Boo usually faces the opening, he's so warm.
One of the biggest challenges was Theodore, a beaver who kept dragging ice to the opening of his den and unintentionally locking himself out. He ordinarily stacks twigs and straw there to keep out the wind, but the pieces of ice solidified and wouldn't let him in. "He got separated from his mother too early. He doesn't know what to do," Spangler said of the Hurricane Hugo survivor.
She and her husband, Scott, came in Tuesday to relieve the employees who had slept on the floor of zoo offices and lived on beanie-weenies and other canned chow.
The best food was the animals' - tons of fresh fruits and vegetables. So the stranded workers microwaved a few sweet potatoes.
The crew had driven up in a donated Jeep Cherokee Sunday morning to feed the animals. They had planned to be off the mountain by 3 p.m., but the snow came so fast that they were socked in before they knew it.
They called zoo director Beth Poff and their families. They watched TV in what they dubbed the TV lounge - actually Poff's office - and read books in the zoo library when they weren't working and acting punchy.
Monday, the newlywed husband of zoo keeper Theresa Hill, who is pregnant, couldn't take it anymore. Siegfried "Siggy" Hill hiked two miles up the mountain to bring her and her colleagues 50 pounds of food and blankets. He fixed them a dinner of fried chicken, spaghetti and cookies that broke the isolation and seemed like a victory party.
Tuesday, they learned that snowbound cars on Walnut Avenue had blocked snowplows until about midnight Monday. In the morning, the Spanglers drove up the reopened road and did a major cleaning and feeding with Jobe, zoo keeper Shari Payne and maintenance worker Don Rowland.
Another employee was to be called in from a 10-day vacation to relieve the overworked crew. The staff keeps a 24-hour watch on the animals.
Poff praised the stranded workers for the longest emergency shift in the zoo's 44-year history. "Everybody always asks about the animals. The animals are the smart ones. They'll just sleep through all this," she said. It was the staff who went through an ordeal.
In case there's a snow like this again, the zoo needs donations of cots, air mattresses, snow shovels and snow blowers - they have just one old one. Poff said they also need someone with a powerful vehicle to get workers out in deep snow. Regular four-wheel-drive vehicles won't cut it.
Tuesday afternoon, Jobe was settling in for two days off at home. "I've had a shower," he said, "and I'm in dry clothes, and about two minutes ago the Domino's man got here."
LENGTH: Medium: 70 linesby CNB