THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601090311
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: THE BLIZZARD OF '96
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
In downtown Norfolk on Monday, there was the official word and the word on the street.
Officially, the power was back on after Sunday's blackout on Main Street and businesses could gear up for the week ahead.
The word on the street was different: desolate would've summed it up. Ghost town would've been accurate - with blasts of frigid air twirling snow around like tumbleweeds.
Main Street in front of the Waterside Marriott still had the appearance of a bomb blast, which it pretty much became Sunday when underground transformers exploded. Half a dozen Virginia Power trucks were parked in the street outside, along with a Bell Atlantic truck.
Pipes and wires protruding from a gaping hole in the street allowed a look inside the belly of Norfolk.
Main Street was blocked off ``until further notice,'' according to George Kapos, owner of Yorgo's Bageldashery and the unofficial keeper of word-on-the-street information.
``We're getting a lot of phone calls,'' Kapos said shortly after power was restored. ``We're like central info - everybody's trying to find out what's going on downtown.''
So what was going on downtown Monday? Basically, a lot of nothing.
``Most of the businesses down here are pretty much coming in, checking everything out, then going home,'' Kapos said. ``I think we're going to have a pretty good Vepco and police contingent for lunch today.''
Kapos' immediate plans were to help build a snowman on the sidewalk and then wait for the real reasons he opened the popular lunch spot when most of downtown was dead:
``We serve die-hard New Yorkers,'' he said. ``This is nothing to them - they'll kill us if we shut down.''
It wasn't so much the snow that shut downtown - it was one part snow, three parts blackout. In this age, there's not much business in a business district when faxes, e-mail, voice-mail, phones and lights go out - even for a short time.
Not to mention the fact that businesses in Norfolk do business with other businesses in other cities, many of which on the East Coast had more than a foot of snow and also ground to a halt.
Wall Street, the mecca of capitalism, even called it quits early Monday. Trading was suspended at 2 p.m. at the New York Stock Exchange.
None of which stopped Dan Heflin, a marine and industrial consultant, who actually seemed to be enjoying working when few others were. Heflin came into his office Monday morning, scouted out the situation, then called the office staff and told them not to bother.
``My office suite, half of it is powered, half of it isn't,'' Heflin said. ``I just told everybody to stay away. Anyway, it's a good day to catch up on some stuff.''
One of Heflin's office associates comes from snowy upstate New York, he said, and didn't think much of the white stuff that shut down Norfolk. But as Heflin pointed out:
``Of course, the explosions, the loss of electricity, added a different dimension,'' he said. ``It's quite an interesting combination of things.''
That combination brought Randy Anderson, of General Elevator, to downtown Norfolk on Sunday night. General Elevator is responsible for keeping the lifts in many of the large downtown buildings functioning. Anderson's take - if downtown seemed like a ghost town Monday, you should've seen it Sunday night.
``The sky was dark all the way across,'' Anderson said. ``I was like, `What have I got myself into?' We did pretty good. We didn't trap anybody in any elevators that I'm aware of.''
But by Monday, Sunday's night's eerieness had turned into emptiness.
``A lot of buildings,'' Anderson said, ``there's hardly anybody in them. Everybody's who's here wants to go home, pretty much.'' ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT G. LYNN
Staff members of THe Virginian-Pilot decide on a course of action
Sunday night.
MOTOYA NAKAMURA
Art Lane, left, and RObert Kuhn make their way to work Monday in
Norfolk.
JOHN C. BELL
WTKR's Greg Padgett had to hand draw his five-day weather forecast.
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN / The Virginian-Pilot
Downtown Norfolk was dark Sunday night after power was turned off so
that emergency crews could contain the underground fire.
KEYWORDS: BLACKOUT ELECTRICITY WINTER STORM BLIZZARD by CNB