Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 15, 1994 TAG: 9402150061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
"It's a very emotional issue," Ray said. "It looks as if we'll lose that one, too."
The Oaks, a 101-year-old Victorian home at East Main and Park streets that Ray and her husband Tom have run as a B&B for 4 1/2 years, had 10 huge oaks as recently as 1982. But two died after landscaping renovations in the mid-'80s; Hurricane Hugo uprooted another in 1989.
Like many of its younger counterparts across the New River and Roanoke valleys, the oak standing beside the Ray's driveway is surrounded by fallen, cut-up branches and will likely have to come down.
Ray, however, credited the past work of the F.A. Bartlett Tree Expert Co. and Peter Feret, the late Virginia Tech forestry professor, with strengthening the six remaining oaks - one estimated to be 400 years old - enough to survive an ice-coated weekend.
Residents, officials, insurance adjusters and tree service companies across the region went to work Monday facing damaged trees and homes, cars and fences struck by falling limbs. The Virginia Cooperative Extension director for Montgomery County warned residents to be wary of inexperienced or unscrupulous tree cleanup crews.
"This is a tree-related catastrophe," said Appalachian Power Co. manager Bob Kilgore, whose division includes the New River Valley and four counties to the south and west. Falling branches, particularly from maples and pines, caused most of the outages that left thousands of people in the cold and dark.
As of Monday, Apco's maintenance crews and reinforcement contractors from West Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina and Ohio were in "mop-up mode" - opening up specific routes to smaller clusters of customers - after a weekend spent removing deadfalls from power lines and opening up rights of way for line crews, Kilgore said.
Christiansburg Town Manager John Lemley estimated it will take three to four weeks to pick up all the debris; Ron Secrist, his counterpart in Blacksburg, issued a similar estimate and cited Highland Park and the Draper Road-Preston Avenue neighborhood as the hardest-hit areas in town. Radford City Manager Robert Asbury said ice damaged thousands of trees in what he estimated to be four times the impact of Hurricane Hugo. Downed trees still limited some Radford streets to one lane.
Crews from the three localities will be collecting tree debris from curbsides. "We're picking up everything that gets set out," said Lance Terpenny, Christiansburg's assistant town manager.
Blacksburg officials asked that limbs for pickup be kept to 4 inches in diameter and 7 feet long.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors was to consider a resolution Monday night to waive the usual tipping fee at the county landfill for storm debris. The limbs and tree parts will be ground into mulch.
Norma Hill, office manager with Leonard L. Brown Insurance Agency in Blacksburg, had seen 10 claims for cars struck by limbs and many others for houses and fences struck by deadfalls.
"It's just really a disaster," Hill said. "You name it, we've had it."
Pam Carper, part owner of Carper Insurance Agency, said more policy holders have reported damage, but with less destruction than that caused by a severe windstorm last June. Her office has received reports of gutters torn off homes and cars struck by tree limbs, but no serious displacements caused by trees on homes.
Montgomery extension director Joe Hunnings issued the same warning he did after the June storm: be careful of whom you hire to clean up your property, if you can't do it yourself.
"There's people going out that really don't know what they're doing," Hunnings said Monday.
The list of tree-damage recovery tips issued by Hunnings recommends that residents: hire only tree service professionals who are part of established businesses in the community, are listed in the phone book under tree service and who have insurance for property damage, personal liability and worker compensation.
Hunnings' staff worked Monday with the Montgomery Sheriff's Office to prepare a damage assessment for homes, vehicles and utility lines.
Though trees aren't necessarily part of that picture, "Nearly every house in the county that had some trees probably had some damage," Hunnings said. Silver maples and European white birches, in particular, succumbed to ice damage, he said.
Hunnings said much storm damage can be prevented by proper pruning and tree maintenance. His office has a flier containing such tips.
Back at The Oaks, Margaret Ray said she will continue to seek a federal grant to pay for further efforts to shore up the remaining oaks. The Montgomery supervisors were to put the matter up for public hearing next month. The Rays are also giving the state an easement donation to protect the property.
"We love the trees and the property," Ray said. "It's just like losing a member of the family."
Staff writer Mara Lee contributed to this report.
by CNB