THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601090227
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: THE BLIZZARD OF '96
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON AND MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
The snow's blowing, school's out, day care's closed and the office is . . . OPEN.
What's a working parent to do?
Take a vacation day. Beg a neighbor. Call Grandma and Grandpa. And if all else fails, panic.
Panic is what Chesapeake police dispatcher Karla Brist started to do Monday morning after making one of those discoveries that strikes fear in the heart of many a working parent: locked doors at the Oceana Naval Child Care Center in Virginia Beach, where she takes her daughter.
It was 6:30 a.m., and she was due at work in an hour. So Brist imposed on one of her best friends and asked whether the friend could watch 3-year-old, Lei.
The friend could, and Brist made it to work only 30 minutes late, even though she had to detour from her usual commute to go to her friend's house.
``I have one of those have-to-work jobs,'' Brist said. ``I have to be here.''
Parents in ``have-to-work'' jobs throughout Hampton Roads scrambled Monday to make arrangements for their children, since all schools and many day-care centers were closed.
Some people, like Barbara Xenakis, a deputy clerk at Portsmouth's Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, relied on relatives for help. ``I called his grandma,'' said Xenakis, who has a 5-year-old son, John.
Experience led Sharon Beene-Brichter to early action. She drove from her Chesapeake home to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Sunday afternoon to pick up her mother-in-law to watch her three young daughters, guessing correctly that their day care and school would be closed Monday.
``I called her Sunday and begged her to come to the house, in the middle of the day before it got bad: `Please come spend the night so I can go to work Monday!' '' said Beene-Brichter, compensation and benefits manager at Chesapeake General Hospital.
``It's a big problem. If I didn't have her, I really didn't have anybody else to fall back on. . . . If she hadn't shown up today, I'd probably be at home.''
She wouldn't have been alone. For many parents Monday, no school meant no work, whether they liked it or not. They simply had no one to watch their children.
Others left work early as some day-care centers closed at midday. Some left older children home alone, tethered only by phones.
At J.C. Penney Co. at Lynnhaven Mall, where the major department stores closed early due to the weather, store managers were understanding with their parent-employees caught in the lurch.
``The ones who did come in took their kids to a relative,'' said Barbara Lee, a receptionist. ``We have had people call because they couldn't get a sitter.''
It was the same at USAA, the military insurance and financial company in Norfolk. But spokeswoman Barbara L. Stevens said most employees were able to make alternate child-care plans Sunday because the weather turned bad over a weekend.
``Had it happened today, when more people were at work, I think people would've been screaming and ranting, wondering when we were going to let them go home,'' Stevens said.
It could've been worse. The weather was so frightful early Monday that many workplaces didn't open, so parents could stay home too.
This was evident at The Sitter, a Virginia Beach child-care facility that accepts children on a drop-in basis. When schools are closed, the center normally sees an increase from its usual 50 or so children each day. On Monday, the facility saw only 15 children. And three of them left at lunchtime.
``Most jobs are closed. Most people are home with their kids,'' said Carolyn E. Key, a supervisor who guessed parents were leery of fighting the snow that blew much of the day.
Good thing - half of the center's normal six-person staff also didn't make it in to work.
Even some backup plans for snowy days backfired. NationsBank is one of the few local businesses that has a snow plan that provides employees' children with supervised care and organized activities when schools close. But its Snowy Day Program hit a snag when a power outage downtown threw the headquarters into darkness and coldness.
``Today was supposed to be the first day of the program,'' said Van Deane of NationBank's personnel office. ``But with the electricity knocking the heat out, we couldn't do it.''
NationsBank's working parents instead could take their children to Boys & Girls Clubs of South Hampton Roads at no charge. No parents took advantage of the program Monday, since the bank was operating with a smaller-than-usual staff. MEMO: SCHOOLS
The following schools are scheduled to be closed today:
Accomack County public schools
Calvary Christian Academy
Denbigh Christian Academy
First Baptist Christian School-Suffolk
Franklin public schools
Gloucester public schools
Hampton public schools
Isle of Wight public and private schools
Nansemond-Suffolk Academy
Newport News public schools
Norfolk public schools (12-month employees report an hour later)
Poquoson city schools
Suffolk city schools
Surry County public and private schools
Southampton County public schools
Virginia Beach city schools. (12-month employees report two-hours
late
Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind (closed all week)
As of press time Monday night, no decision had been made for
Chesapeake and Portsmouth schools. Those decisions should be available
this morning through television and radio stations.
COLLEGES
Norfolk State University will be open as usual.
Old Dominion University will open at 9:30 a.m.
Virginia Wesleyan College opens at 10 a.m.
NAVY
Closings for Sub-area Norfolk:
Category Alpha personnel - report on time
Category Bravo personnel - authorized 2-hour delay
Sub-area Norfolk includes:
Norfolk Naval Station
Norfolk Naval Air Station
All ships stationed at the Naval Base
Headquarters Support Activity (CLF compound)
Craney Island
Armed Forces Staff college
Camp Allen
KEYWORDS: WINTER STORM BLIZZARD by CNB