ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601100039
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
THE STOCK STILL HAD TO BE FED, hospital workers had to report, and some folks just had to get out for groceries - or perhaps just for beer - but New River Valley residents by and large stayed home and started digging out Monday after the weekend's storm.
Jimmy Caldwell walked along track marks left on an unplowed road and waded a through knee-deep snow in Floyd County Sunday morning to feed his beef cattle at a farm a mile and a half away. Three hours later, Caldwell made it back to his home, which is 30 minutes from the nearest town.
He will have to do the same today.
"You live out here, that's the way it is," Caldwell said. "If you've got cattle, you've got to feed them."
Caldwell, like many others in the New River Valley, is taking this snowstorm in stride. Though it has buried Southwest Virginia and much of the East Coast in up to three feet of snow, law enforcement, local government and hospital officials reported no major storm-related problems Monday, saying many people seem to be taking their advice and are staying home.
Several county sheriff's offices are using four-wheel drive vehicles to help people in need of food, heating or medical supplies. Phillip Hale, a dispatcher at the Floyd County Sheriff's Office, spent most of his time Monday morning fielding calls from people who wanted information about road conditions.
"They just want me to tell them it's OK to go out and drive," Hale said. "It's not."
Blowing snow and drifting on Monday made road conditions treacherous. Public works departments in several New River Valley municipalities, including Radford, Christiansburg and Blacksburg, said they had plowed most residential streets but the winds quickly negated their work. By early Monday, Radford street crews had put down about 70 tons of salt; Blacksburg crews put down about $6,000 worth of rock salt.
"We've had trucks hung up, and trucks that break down," said William J. Woolwine, a foreman with the Blacksburg street department. But "all in all, we've got things under control."
Spokespeople from Radford Community and Columbia Montgomery Regional hospitals reported a few broken bones and people who came in with chest pains after shoveling snow. In many cases, personnel at both hospitals stayed through the storm to care for patients and provide food service and building maintenance.
Both hospitals did cancel regularly scheduled surgeries on Monday. They will begin again today.
Those who help care for the elderly report few problems so far because of the storm.
Meals on Wheels in Radford asked customers to eat their emergency dinners - boxed meals of non-perishable items - that were handed out in the beginning of December in case of such circumstances. "They ate that yesterday," said Phyllis King, coordinator for Meals on Wheels. "Today they were on their own."
King called the 32 senior citizens on her route Sunday and Monday to make sure they were OK. "It's amazing," she said. "I'm worried about them and they're worried about me, saying, 'Oh, don't come, we'd worry about you being out.'"
Capt. Eric Barr of the National Guard in Roanoke said the guard has been sending out Humvee vehicles to haul shifts of medical personnel throughout the New River and Roanoke valleys and to pick up stranded people.
The National Guard has been assisting local law enforcement agencies throughout the storm after Virginia was declared to be under a state of emergency on Saturday. Barr stressed that requests for help must come through the county emergency services office and then through the state.
Electricity in the New River Valley also remained intact. American Electric Power, formerly Appalachian Power Co., reported no major problems in the area. Spokeswoman Glenda Wolford said the cold temperatures and dry snow have meant fewer problems; the snow has not stuck to the power lines.
For most, Monday was a day for shoveling and - for those not fortunate enough to have a four-wheel-drive vehicle - for tramping through the snow.
Take Terry Driver, for instance. The manager of the downtown Christiansburg 7-Eleven convenience store wasn't going to let a few feet of snow and blowing drifts stop her from opening up.
Around 2 p.m., Driver, wearing hiking boots, three pairs of socks, leg warmers, long coat, hat and scarf, was trudging down Independence Boulevard from her home in Vista Via subdivision, where the snow was too deep for her front-wheel-drive car.
She had intended to walk the 11/2 miles to her store on First Street, as she did Sunday, but gladly accepted a ride from a roving reporter and photographer. She said she expected another afternoon of selling baby food, dog food and that ever-popular elixir of weather emergencies - cold beer.
Dropped off at 2:24, the first customer pulled into the lot before Driver had finished unlocking the front door.
Meanwhile, on Ellett Drive, Ray Graham was shoveling his fourth driveway of the day. He runs R&R Home Maintenance service and was clearing the driveways for some of his regular customers. He said he started at 7 a.m. and each driveway took about two hours.
With all that exercise and four layers of clothes, the cold wind wasn't bothering him too much. "The only thing that's freezing on me is my mustache and I'm afraid" it might break off, he joked.
Over at the Food Lion Plaza in Christiansburg, the plowed parking lot was a regular four-wheel-drive showroom. Danny and Lisa Altizer just had to get out to fight the effects of cabin fever. So they drove to the Food Lion for beef and other fixins' for stew to be made by Lisa Altizer's mother.
"That's the deal, that's why we came," Lisa Altizer explained.
Some people, such as Georgie Burton in Sugar Run Hollow in Giles County, live in locations too remote to even make it to the grocery store. But Burton, who has lived in the area for 70 years, is fully prepared to be snowbound for the long haul. She has plenty of food stocked up in her kitchen and the oil tank is filled.
Burton remembers a winter storm 50 years ago that produced almost as much snow topped with freezing rain. Compared to that storm, this snowfall is not nearly as bad, she said.
"I've learned in my years, you have to take things as they come."
Joanne Sholar, who lives off Virginia 8 in Floyd County, said people in more remote areas seem more prepared and calm about storms like this.
"I really think the people here, they're not freaking out," she said. "We talked to some of our neighbors and they're just kind of digging out, and they're not really getting all upset about it."
"We're thankful we have electricity," she added.
Staff writers Kathy Loan, Paul Dellinger and Madelyn Rosenberg contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Long : 126 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Gene Dalton. 1. A big tractor added another load to aby CNBgrowing mountain of snow at the New River Valley Mall in
Christiansburg on Monday as the sun came out and the clearing of the
parking lots got under way. 2. Eric Brady. Terry Driver walked along
Independence Boulevard in Christiansburg on Monday on her way to
open her 7-eleven store. The blowing snow continued to drift
roadways Monday, long after they'd been plowed. color.