ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 10, 1996 TAG: 9601100082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA
Franklin County Director of Public Safety Claude Webster said drifting snow and snow-covered roads have forced emergency workers to work much harder to get to calls.
All travel at night has been limited to emergencies because it is so treacherous, he said.
Webster said one pregnant woman was taken from her home in a sled while her contractions came at five-minute intervals.
He said three men pulled the woman to a four-wheel-drive vehicle - the only vehicle that could get to her house because the road she lived on had not been cleared. The sled was necessary because her driveway had not been cleared, either.
Then it was a mile ride to the ambulance and on to the hospital. By then, the contractions were just two minutes apart.
A family escaped injury but watched its house burn to the ground, Webster said, because snow kept a fire truck from reaching the home.
Firefighters reached the family's driveway after making the trip with a Virginia Department of Transportation snow scraper clearing the way in front of the fire truck.
But the family's one-half to three-quarter-mile driveway had not been cleared, and the crew was stopped dead.
By that time the house was fully engulfed and there was nothing anyone could do, Webster said.
LENGTH: Short : 35 linesby CNB