Saturday, February 06, 2010
Third major winter storm slaps region with snow, sleet
Cancellations and closures have become a familiar refrain this winter.
JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times
Virginia Tech student Jonny Walker scrapes snow from his truck in Tech's parking lot known as "the cage" before heading to help a friend stuck in the snow near downtown Blacksburg on Friday.
Photos by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times
Cars and trucks move steadily on southbound Interstate 81 near exit 141 in Roanoke County Friday morning. [See more photos of yesterday's snowfall]
Passengers load Flight 5543 en-route to Atlanta before it takes off from Roanoke Regional Airport Friday morning. [See more photos of the early morning snow]
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Yesterday
From this week's papers
- Winter turns deadly on I-81
- Third major storm slaps region with snow, sleet
- Grocers await stock after shopping frenzy
- Weather Journal: Storm likely to sprinkle more snow, less sleet
- Trusty winter tool in short supply locally
- Winter takes another wallop at Southwest Va.
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UPDATED 11:20 a.m. Saturday: Tens of thousands of people are without power today in the midst of a heavy winter storm that stretches across Southwest Virginia. [Read more on our continuous updates page throughout the weekend.]
The hardest hit counties recieved significant ice and sleet. About 18,000 people in Henry County are without electricity, according to Appalachian Power. In Patrick County, about 7,500 customers have no service. (See Apco's latest report.)
Isolated outages have been reported in dozens of other counties.
Montgomery County has so far been unaffected, according to Apco.
The Smart Way bus, which links the Roanoke and New River valleys, is not running today. Blacksburg Transit is operational on its "break service" in Blacksburg, but a decision on whether to run the new Christiansburg service, which was scheduled to start at noon, has yet to be made.
Many municipal buildings, such as rec centers, are closed throughout the New River Valley. Pulaski County has already canceled its trash collection for Monday, citing road conditions. Blacksburg moved today's trash pickups to Sunday.
Snow continues to fall in the Roanoke and New River valleys this morning and is expected to continue into the afternoon or evening. Floyd, Montgomery and Patrick counties have been hit hardest by snow, according unofficial inch counts from the National Weather Service in Blacksburg.
Parts of Patrick received slightly less than a foot of snow. Cooper Hill in Floyd County received 11 inches, as did the McCoy section of Montgomery County. The town of Pulaski was blanketed with 10 inches. Roanoke's official total for Friday was 8.3 inches and Blacksburg's was 8.7 inches. (Latest inch counts for Virginia and West Virginia.
On Friday, Danny Ratliff dragged on his cigarette beside his 2002 Mercedes, broken down on Electric Road, when a plow truck roared past and splattered his ear with a cake of snow, ice and dirt.
The 48-year-old Southwest Roanoke County resident wiped off the wet muck and immediately absolved the plow.
"Well, they have to clear the roads, don't they?" he said. "Too bad the roads get nasty so quickly. Isn't the wet snow pretty? It's beautiful."
Storm-weary Virginians greeted the season's third major winter storm with Southern hospitality, with most refusing to be defeated by winter blues.
Snowfall of 5 to 10 inches was common across Southwest Virginia, with many areas also seeing freezing rain and sleet. At 5 p.m., Roanoke had 6.75 inches, officially. An additional 2 to 6 inches of snow mixed with sleet was forecast Friday night and today from the system expected to bury Washington in 2 feet of snow.
The storm shut local government offices and schools, forced hundreds of the region's businesses, from retail stores to doctor's offices, to close and grounded planes at Roanoke Regional Airport. State police reported more than 260 crashes statewide, including one on Interstate 81 in Wythe County that killed a father and son after they stopped to help a driver who skidded in the snow.
About 62 percent, or 17,500, of Appalachian Power's customers in Henry County were without power about 8 p.m. Friday, according to AEP's Web site.
It was too early to say when power would be restored there early Friday night because freezing rain -- which could bring down trees and power lines -- was still moving eastward, said AEP Spokesman John Shepelwich.
"We can't be specific about Henry County because outages are occurring at a time when it is becoming more dangerous to travel to them and restore them," Shepelwich said. "We have to keep our crews safe, and keep our customers safe."
Some who tried to flee found themselves stranded at Roanoke Regional Airport, where most flights were canceled Friday.
Eric Kennedy, a food salesman from Garden City, planned a week of watching NASCAR racing at the Daytona 500 in Florida. After a wait in the airport lobby, Kennedy learned his Allegiant Air flight was rescheduled for today.
"But it wasn't meant to be," Kennedy said. "No need to get mad. It's out of everybody's control."
In downtown Roanoke, Mike Moore, a private contractor hired for snow removal in front of the Anthem building, was busy shoveling. And thinking of snowboarding.
"I like the snow. I like the cold," Moore said.
For the third time this winter, snow prompted event organizers to cancel some weekend shows, and hampered sales at restaurants and bars.
"If it were snowing on Monday or Tuesday, I'd be OK. I can sacrifice those nights," said Jason Martin, owner and general manager of Martin's Downtown Bar & Grill.
Weekend business makes up about half of the week's sales, Martin said.
He closed on a Friday and Saturday when the first storm hit in December, and again last Saturday This time, he's keeping his doors open.
"We've got to do something -- anything," Martin said.
The timing of the storms has also caused problems for concert venues such as Kirk Avenue Music Hall, which postponed its third show on Friday because of the snow.
Kathy Chittum, executive director of the Grandin Theatre, said the movies would go on as long as there were customers. She predicted the theater would at least remain open through the screenings starting during the 7 o'clock hour.
Other business owners decided to stay open, too.
"A month ago, we wouldn't have opened," said Mike Ahuero, who with his wife, Pennie, owns Viva La Cupcake on Grandin Road.
The shop was closed during last weekend's snowstorm, and the business' Facebook fans complained, Ahuero said. On Friday, the shop had plenty of business.
"People are out and about because they are sick of the weather," Ahuero said.
Interstates and state routes remained relatively clear throughout the day, thanks to plows and salt trucks.
Big rig driver Johnny Hall of Atlanta prepared to take I-81 south from the Ironto truck stop in Montgomery County after a night of rest. His truck was packed with a load of photographic paper that needed to get to Oklahoma City.
"This is fine," he said while looking at the interstate. "When you see trucks moving 65 miles per hour, you know the roads are pretty decent."
The storm will continue to move up the East Coast today.
Blizzard warnings were posted in Delaware and southern New Jersey, and Philadelphia braced for about a foot of snow.
Washington was predicted to get more than 30 inches, which would be its heaviest snowfall since 1922.
The Associated Press and staff writers Amy Matzke-Fawcett, Sharla Bardin, Neil Harvey, Jorge Valencia and Jeff Sturgeon contributed to this report.
