THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601110330
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines
It won't be as bad this time.
That's the word from meteorologists as nature appears ready to serve up a less intense copy of last weekend's northeaster.
In Hampton Roads, 2 inches of snow may greet motorists for Friday morning's rush hour. But it should change to rain later in the day.
Interior Virginia and areas to the northeast could get an additional 8 to 16 inches of snow, however. And although that might be about half of what fell last weekend, it could cause a new host of problems in parts of the country working to recover from the Blizzard of '96.
``The additional heavy wet snow on top of the 1 to 3 feet of snow already on the ground over portions of the area could cause structural problems for roofs,'' said Dewey Walston, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Washington.
Plus, ``some roads are still covered by ice and snow from the last storm, and the additional snow and ice will likely cause roads to quickly become impassable by Friday morning,'' Walston said.
And winds are expected to increase during the day and Friday night. ``When you combine this with wet snow and ice, there could be downed power lines,'' Walston warned. ``Be ready for extended power outages.''
A winter storm watch is in effect for tonight and Friday for much of eastern and central Virginia, including Williamsburg, Emporia, Wallops Island and points north and west, but not the Hampton Roads area. A winter storm watch also is in effect tonight in western North Carolina.
``Oh, lordy, that worries me,'' said Tom Bailey, acting director of the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild, which operates the Folk Art Center in Asheville, N.C. The western mountains of North Carolina received more than 2 feet of snow in the last storm, and many secondary and back roads remain buried.
Meanwhile, Shenandoah National Park rangers Wednesday rescued three men and their three children from a snowbound cabin and another man who endured a blizzard huddled inside a three-sided hut.
Bryant Etheridge, 20, of Williamsburg spent five days inside the Appalachian Trail shelter, rationing his meager food supply of granola bars, peanut butter crackers and ready-made soups boiled on his compact stove.
``I wasn't worried. I had food and a means to melt snow for water,'' said Etheridge, a volunteer worker for the Student Conservation Association. ``My only concern was that my family was worried about me. I could have made it to the end of the week.''
By the end of the week, however, more snow may be falling there and across the state.
The storm was just beginning to develop Wednesday in the upper Midwest. It was expected to move into the lower Mississippi Valley and then to the Carolina coast by Friday morning.
The storm should then track north along the mid-Atlantic coast and strengthen, the Weather Service said Wednesday.
Snow is expected to spread over Virginia and the lower Maryland shore before dawn Friday. Northeastern North Carolina can expect a mix of rain and sleet at the onset.
A change to sleet, freezing rain and eventually all rain should occur Friday morning in Southeastern Virginia and on Friday afternoon over the lower Maryland Eastern Shore and areas in Virginia east of Interstate 95.
The storm's track is uncertain, however, so the lines between rain, mixed precipitation and snow are uncertain.
``There's a lot of moisture available,'' said Mike Bono of The Weather Channel in Atlanta. ``The cold air is there, too. But not as cold'' as last weekend. ``It will be running 5 to 10 degrees warmer.''
Bono said there is ``a much better chance that it is going to change over to rain or a mix along the immediate coastal plain, even into southern New England.''
That might spare major East Coast cities from another round of crippling snowfall from which many urban areas were just begging to recover on Wednesday. Inland, however, places like Washington and Pittsburgh probably will be walloped again.
The fresh snowfall would come after a blizzard that dumped 1 1/2 to 3 feet of snow across the Northeast, and shut down most schools and businesses on Monday and Tuesday. At least 100 deaths were blamed on the storm.
And even the threat of new snow was having an immediate effect.
In Northern Virginia, where up to a foot more snow is possible by Friday, several school districts abandoned any plans to open this week.
In New York, shoppers scrambled over snow drifts and slid down still-icy sidewalks to jam supermarkets. Many shelves were empty.
The trucking industry - which carries most of the bread, milk, eggs, meat and groceries to those shelves - is in a shambles.
Piled snow in the Washington area Wednesday kept government workers home for a third day - after a three-week shutdown caused by stalled budget talks.
The federal government is supposed to get back to work today. But new snow on Friday may again shutter the bureaucracy.
``One to 2 feet of snow could fall north and west of a line from Baltimore to Washington to Roanoke'' by tonight, Walston said.
``In an area including Baltimore, Washington and Lynchburg, the snow could mix with sleet at times Friday,'' he said. ``Accumulations in (that) area could total 8 to 16 inches by Friday evening.''
That much snow would again stall trains, planes and automobiles.
Air service was still limping back toward normal Wednesday. Newark, Kennedy and La Guardia airports in the New York area reopened. But authorities said operations would not return to normal for at least three days.
At Washington's National and Dulles airports, operations ran smoothly for the first time since the storm hit Saturday night. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
This blizzard is more like a blitz: Residents of the capital, above,
struggle to get back to routines. Our Washington correspondent
joined the fray.
by CNB