THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070399
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
The meltdown from the weekend ice storm that paralyzed Hampton Roads will continue today as highs climb into the 40s, but public school officials - wary of ice on the roads this morning - gave children a third day off.
``We still have neighborhoods in sheets of ice,'' said Tom Cupitt, Chesapeake schools spokesman. ``We have a lot of back roads that are not safe at all for buses. And for us, safety overrules everything.''
School officials in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Suffolk, Portsmouth and Isle of Wight County also planned with caution as the National Weather Service predicted late Tuesday that the mercury would dip overnight into the lower teens.
While the official high Tuesday was 29 degrees - well below freezing - it was apparent that the thaw had already started. The snow that fell Saturday night and Sunday began to melt, forming big puddles in the streets.
It was that runoff, plus the ice that continued to coat some streets, that gave school officials pause.
The National Weather Service in Wakefield predicted high temperatures in the 40s today and possibly into the 50s on Thursday. The low tonight is expected to be in the 20s. Thursday's predicted low is in the mid-30s.
The thaw is expected to accelerate Thursday, when light showers are predicted, said Wayne Albright, a forecaster at the Wakefield weather station.
The best news is that no serious flooding is expected, Albright said, despite the onset of a midwinter thaw.
``The snowpack is just not significant,'' Albright said. ``And with no significant rain expected, flooding potential will be very low.''
At the height of the storm, half of Virginia Power's customers in Chesapeake were without power.
Seventeen percent of its customers in Norfolk were in the dark, as were 16 percent of its accounts in Virginia Beach.
Pat Gayle, administrative specialist with Virginia Power, said the utility was on the verge of restoring service late Tuesday to the handful of customers still without electricity. That would end more than 100 straight hours of power interruption for the utility.
At its peak on Saturday morning, the storm cut power to more than 138,000 Virginia Power customers.
``That is as many as I can remember ever having at one time,'' Gayle said.
At the same time, about 2,500 Bell Atlantic customers on the Peninsula and in South Hampton Roads were without service because of the weather. Most of those problems had been solved by Tuesday, according to Paul Miller, a company spokesman.
Virginia Power now is asking customers still affected by the storm to call the utility, identifying themselves as storm victims. This will help the utility to assess the storm's impact, Gayle said. At the storm's peak, Virginia Power had pleaded with customers to limit calls to the utility.
Crews from Maryland and West Virginia still were helping repair lines Tuesday, Gayle said. They are expected to leave Hampton Roads today.
Meanwhile, the cleanup is just getting under way in hard-hit Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, where ice-damaged tree limbs litter yards and streets.
``We will be busy playing catch-up for the next couple of weeks,'' predicted Louie Jordan, waste-management superintendent for Norfolk. Jordan said the damage to trees is citywide.
In Virginia Beach, the cleanup has been stalled by snow-covered streets.
Trash collection should resume today, said Wade Kyle, administrator of waste management in Virginia Beach, but he predicted the cleanup won't get up to full speed until after the weekend.
``Next week we hope to put a big dent in it,'' Kyle said.
Residents should not be concerned if everything is not picked up on the first visit. Many homes will require more than one visit, he said. ``I believe it will take two weeks to complete,'' Kyle said.
Kyle said a tip for Virginia Beach residents is to keep piles of tree limbs as small as possible.
``The shorter the length and the more manageable the pile, the faster it is going to get picked up,'' Kyle said.
Luke McCoy, assistant city manager in Portsmouth, said he estimates the storm increased the normal amount of waste to be collected in the city by four times. The cleanup will start today, McCoy said.
``The problem is that everyone has so much down,'' McCoy said.
In Suffolk, Tom Hines, director of public works, said:
``I don't think we are in that bad of shape. We just aren't reporting that much of a problem.'' by CNB