ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120032
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: SHAWSVILLE
SOURCE: HAL SHEIKERZ STAFF WRITER
In the 25 years she's lived in the New River Valley, Faith Hope Perdue has never experienced this much snow.
Perdue, who is blind and lives by herself, is one of 310 elderly people in the valley who depends on Meals on Wheels for a hot meal each weekday.
For several days this week, however, no one was able to climb through the snow drifts to reach her home on Sweet Springs Road in Shawsville or the homes of elderly people across the New River Valley.
In Pulaski County, the Virginia National Guard and the Virginia Forestry Department offered volunteer drivers along with two humvees to help New River Valley Senior Services deliver meals to snowbound homes.
Gary Heinline, program supervisor for NRV Senior Services, said the organization also sought help from local jurisdictions such as Pulaski, Giles and Montgomery counties and Radford, asking citizens with four-wheel drive vehicles to help agency employees make deliveries.
In Giles County, the Sheriff's Office coordinated with the Pearisburg Rescue Squad, and in Radford the Fire Department used its equipment to make deliveries to Radford, Belspring, New River and Parrot. In Montgomery County, the Sheriff's Office helped to line up volunteers.
Perdue's first hot meal of the week arrived Wednesday. And then she was surprised.
"I wasn't expecting you," Perdue told Guy Duncan, whose Wednesday delivery was the first since last Friday, just before the snowstorm.
"By far, this is the worst [snowstorm]. We've had spells [but] this is the granddaddy," said Duncan, who has delivered Meals on Wheels for five years. The 72-year-old Christiansburg resident drives about 90 miles a day in a pickup truck delivering food around Montgomery County. This week he was stranded and had to wait to have someone drive him in a four-wheel drive.
Gordon Ingram and his wife, Chris, of Christiansburg were among those who volunteered to help with Montgomery County deliveries.
"I was about to go stir crazy," Gordon Ingram said after being snowbound for several days, "and [then] I heard about this,"
In their white Nissan Pathfinder, the Ingrams reported to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office to pick up Duncan.
All together, volunteers helped Meals on Wheels deliver 840 meals Wednesday. In addition to the one hot meal, the clients also received sandwiches, frozen meals and canned food to get them through the next few days, Heinline said. He doesn't expect another Meals on Wheels delivery until next week.
"What we gave them today will have to last," Heinline said. "We're hoping for Monday. Even though Monday is a holiday [Lee-Jackson-King Day], we are planning on working and serving these people, but again it depends on the weather ... and right now it doesn't look promising."
Heinline added that the NRV Senior Services has been hampered by the federal shutdown because the agency doesn't know when it will get its next check to purchase food.
"We have not been able to store or have a lot of the staple items and frozen meals on hand for immediate delivery," he said. "Had I been able to purchase more goods we would have been able to provide more meals for the clients to cover more days in case we couldn't get out next week. ... This has been happening since Oct. 1."
Heinline ordered 3,000 more shelf staple items on Thursday and placed an emergency order for 2,300 frozen meals because he is worried about the weather.
The only elderly people who didn't get Meals on Wheels delivery were 21 clients in Floyd County. Even four-wheel drives were getting stuck in some of the more rural areas of Floyd, Heinline said.
Another problem for NRV Senior Services was getting dialysis patients from their homes to the Radford Dialysis Center. Because many patients are feeble, they are unable to shovel and clear their walkways to allow them to walk or use wheelchairs. Heinline has hired extra people to shovel paths to get the patients.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. 1. Scott Duncan has been logging moreby CNBthan 80 miles per day for the last five years, delivering meals in
Montgomery County. Here he puts together a package for a Shawsville
resident. A Christiansburg couple, Gordon and Chris Ingram, used
their four-wheel-drive to help Duncan make his run over the ice and
snow. color. 2. Scott Duncan delivers a meal to Faith Perdue
(above), who lives on Sweet Springs Road in Shawsville. 3. Gordon
and Chris Ingram of Christiansburg (left) volunteered to drive for
Meals on Wheels after hearing a radio announcement about the need
for four-wheel-drive vehicles to make deliveries over snowy and icy
roads. Gordon Ingram is a building contractor and is not doing much
work during the inclement weather. The Ingrams were happy to be able
to get out of their house.