THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601090315
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: THE BLIZZARD OF '96
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN AND MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Snow and ice hampered most business activity Monday in downtown Norfolk, but financial institutions, law firms and other businesses said their operations had been unscathed by the power outage Sunday.
Life Savings Bank arranged late Sunday to open its branch offices at 11 a.m. Monday, but canceled those plans because of difficult driving conditions, said Edward E. Cunningham, Life's chief executive officer.
Because of the weather, Life also postponed a Monday afternoon meeting of its board of directors, Cunningham said.
The economic impact of the snow day was probably minimal and difficult to determine, area economists said. Some people were still capable of working from home or put in a few hours at the office.
Some offices had computer systems that cut off automatically, preventing huge power surges or blowouts when power was regained. There were no reports of extensive computer damage.
Many employees who showed up for work at accounting firms, law firms and brokerage firms Monday had departed by early afternoon.
But at Norfolk Southern Corp.'s headquarters on East Main Street, a team working on the company's annual report made a scheduled presentation to the rail holding company's management.
``It's business as usual around here,'' said Rob Chapman, a Norfolk Southern spokesman.
Norfolk Southern said heavy snow and extreme cold had hampered traffic along parts of its rail network, but that traffic had not been halted.
Most of downtown Norfolk's main office buildings were shut down on Monday. A few commercial real estate firms such as Goodman Segar Hogan Hoffler had property managers checking in and out of the World Trade Center to determine the status of their retail and office properties throughout Hampton Roads. But even Goodman Segar Hogan Hoffler's property management department closed about 2:30 p.m.
Many offices in Dominion Tower, First Virginia Bank and Main Street Tower did not answer their phones. Some companies and offices had skeleton staffs or answering services picking up messages.
Many downtown offices such as the NationsBank building, the Norfolk Southern tower and Two Commercial Place regained power early Monday morning.
The Norfolk Waterside Marriott regained power Monday at 11:30 a.m. It had five floors fully operating.
``We're still just sort of limping along,'' said hotel general manager Dan Marone.
Marriott staff relocated all of its guests by about 6 p.m. Sunday after the hotel lost electricity and heat. Some stayed at the Courtyard and some at the Omni Hotel.
When the Marriott lost power, the hotel controller came in and shut down all the computer systems so the staff could control bringing them back on-line.
The hotel and convention center had to cancel a conference for government human-resources personnel. Those attending the scheduled convention had booked about 700 rooms throughout the city but they plan to re-book the convention for late February, Marone said.
Luckily, the economic impact on the hotel will be slight because it was only 30 percent occupied, Marone said.
The Waterside Convention Center still had not regained power Monday afternoon because its power source differed from the hotel. But Marone said he expected it to come back on-line by sometime Tuesday.
Commerce crawled along elsewhere in Hampton Roads. Icy roads and snow forced many retailers to close early, including the Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach.
KEYWORDS: BLACKOUT ELECTRICITY WINTER STORM BLIZZARD by CNB