ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 9, 1997 TAG: 9701100054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Employees of essential public services spent Wednesday preparing for winter's first serious storm.
"You can kind of feel it in the air today that they're ready for it," said Laura Bullock, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation's Salem District office.
Bullock was talking about the 12-county district's 750 state employees who spent Wednesday getting their equipment ready and making other preparations for the expected snow, sleet and ice storm.
Late in the afternoon, the National Weather Service office in Blacksburg issued a winter storm warning for Southwest Virginia and portions of adjoining states. A developing storm system over the Louisiana coast was expected to move northeast and collide with cold, dry air, resulting in a mix of wintry precipitation.
From west of a line running from Lynchburg to Wilkesboro, N.C., 3 to 6 inches of snow and sleet was expected to accumulate before changing today to freezing rain. The resulting ice was expected to cause downed tree limbs and power lines, the Weather Service said.
And it was the prospect of ice that most concerned American Electric Power Co., which serves much of Southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia. "Snow and sleet usually aren't a big problem," said Don Johnson, an AEP spokesman in Roanoke.
On Wednesday, AEP placed its employees and contract crews on alert and was making preparations to call up crews from other regions if they are needed, Johnson said. The utility's workers, he said, spent the day making sure necessary repair materials were on hand, fueling trucks, and arranging for the staffing of essential jobs should the storm hit.
What may have been AEP's worst winter damage in history occurred during an ice storm in February 1994, which clobbered the Pulaski area and cut off power to 204,000 customers in Southwest Virginia and West Virginia. Ice storms also struck in January and March of that year. The March storm hit the Roanoke area hardest and left 148,000 AEP customers in both states without power.
Since those 1994 storms, AEP has upgraded its system for handling customer outage complaints. But Johnson emphasized that once customers call and report an outage, they are entered into the computer and should not call back because they tie up the phone lines for others trying to report outages.
The company's crews generally repair the downed lines in circuits that are closest to the sources of power, such as substations, and work their way out, Johnson said. Repairing a far-out line break would not fix an outage if another break lay between the customer and the power source, he explained.
AEP also attempts to give a priority to public buildings and hospitals when repairing outages, he said. One of the big problems the company faces in fixing outages is often just the ability to reach the scene, he said.
VDOT, which is in charge of clearing the roads used by AEP and others, has stockpiled 65,000 tons of sand, chemically treated abrasives, and snow-melting salt in the Salem District for clearing winter roads. The department has more than 400 pieces of snow removal equipment in the district, which it supplements with that of on-call contractors.
VDOT workers, including mechanics and office workers, put in 12-hour shifts during storms, Bullock said.
When a storm hits, VDOT gives top priority to interstate and major primary highways. Once those roads are clear, it turns its attention to subdivision streets and secondary roads, or those with route numbers of 600 and higher.
In addition to the toll-free number accompanying this story, residents may call their local VDOT offices listed in their phone directories for road information, Bullock said.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff: Help during the storm. KEYWORDS: MGRby CNB