Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Residents cope without electricity and warmth
Photo by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times
Lillian Jacobs, a resident of Melrose Towers, warms her hands Monday on an electric space heater. The apartments in Roanoke had been without power since 3 p.m. Sunday.
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Emma Porterfield, storm victim, squealed with delight as she climbed from the heated indoor swimming pool at the Holiday Inn in Northwest Roanoke on Monday afternoon. "I don't ever want to go home," she said.
The 6-year-old's mother, Aimee Porterfield, fled to the splashy respite after the power went out in their Southwest Roanoke home Sunday afternoon. "If you have to be displaced from your home, this is the way to go," she said. Dozens of Roanoke Valley windstorm refugees filled most of the Holiday Inn's 153 rooms by Monday afternoon, said Neil Ordway, the general manager, who said he was holding a few $89-a-night rooms for hotel employees who were waiting to see if their electricity returned.
But a warm swim was far from the minds of most area residents left reeling from Sunday's high winds. The more common focus was on trying to wring estimates from Appalachian Power Co. on when electricity would return, or finding a spot in public shelters.
Jaime Jennings sat inside the American Red Cross shelter established at the Roanoke Civic Center on Monday, unsure what to do. "I actually came to feed the kids," said Jennings, who has four children, ages 7 through 18. Early Sunday afternoon a wind gust knocked a tree down onto her minivan, she said, and her house lost power soon after. They spent Sunday night hunkered in her king-size bed. Jennings accepted hot meals for her family, and said she was grateful. Still, she opted out of the shelter Monday night, finding a $129 room at the Hyatt Place.
James Hancock embodied the spirit of those determined to huddle through the cold, with the thermostat reading 51 degrees in his Daleville home late Monday morning. "I'm miserable, but I'm more angry than anything."
Seth and Jessica Lewis of Botetourt County abandoned their home Sunday for fear of exposing their 7-month-old son, Daniel, to the cold. "We drove to my parents' in Roanoke," she said. But even fleeing was frustrating. The five-mile drive took about two hours because of traffic snags caused by smoke from wildfires, they said. They returned home briefly Monday to pick up more clothes, preparing for a longer stay with her family.
Bill Callahan said he might have left his rural Botetourt County house if not for concern about leaving his three dogs and eight cats. "I pretty much had to stay with them," said Callahan, a retiree who lost power Sunday afternoon. His chill was relieved by a wood-burning fireplace.
For some, health concerns meant a trip to the hospital. Nancy May, a spokeswoman with Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem, said the hospital's emergency room has seen an influx of patients either coming from nursing homes without power or who are home-based and have special needs, such as breathing machines, that are dependent on electricity.
Sunday night, some people went to Carilion Clinic centers complaining of shortness of breath because their oxygen machines were without power, Carilion spokesman Eric Earnhart said. But Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital had no new patients Monday because of power-related problems, he said.
Lack of electricity reminded Mike Brown of Northwest Roanoke to appreciate the little things -- such as an oven that works long enough to cook dinner. "Five hours to cook Cornish hen and broccoli for five people, because the power kept cutting off, coming back on and cutting off again," said Brown, a concrete worker.
Another widespread priority: negotiating to have fallen trees removed from undesirable new locations leaning against houses or stretched across yards.
"I hope $750 is a good price to cut down an oak," said Glen Powers, a Southwest Roanoke homeowner, as he watched a team of three workmen with chain saws chop up the remainder of a 30-foot tree in his front yard. The big blow Sunday ripped a 10-foot branch from the tree and left it split nearly in half. "I thought it might be dangerous," he said.
Not all of the fallen trees landed so benignly.
In Salem, a carriage house section of the historic McVitty House was damaged by wind Sunday evening. Kathy Bragg, who was renting the carriage house, was injured when an oak tree, estimated to be 100 years old, crashed through the roof, said Richard Macher, the property's owner. Bragg was treated for a superficial head wound and released from the hospital. The tree was being removed from the house Monday evening and Macher said he plans to repair the damage.
Some homeowners got unwelcome news from their insurance companies about the cost of removing fallen trees that didn't hit their houses.
"We lost four big trees, but the insurance company said it will only accept a claim on the one that fell on our garage," said Sandra Campbell, who lives on Pineland Avenue in Southwest Roanoke. The 60-foot pine keeled over on Sunday, and lay just above Campbell's woodpile before workmen she hired removed it Monday afternoon.
Others in the region were more worried Monday about just staying warm. At Melrose Towers, an apartment complex for people who are 62 or older, or disabled, residents ate a chicken dinner huddled around space heaters in the community room. "We're sitting here freezing," resident Ruth Wright said.
Although the elevators were running, the building was without lights or heat because of the power failure. After hooking up a generator, the staff managed to electrify a small number of outlets including one in the lobby.
The building staff offered rides Monday to residents who wished to relocate to the shelter at the Roanoke Civic Center. Many left.
Staff writers Marquita Brown, Jessica Marcy, Christina Rogers and Jeff Sturgeon contributed to this report.
