Deadly Storms Pound Appalachia

Thursday, Jan. 29, 1998 | 3:52 a.m.

Summers and hundreds of other motorists were stuck indefinitely at the Beckley Travel Plaza. Many were forced to pull over when a storm began dumping up to 4 feet of snow on the central Appalachians Tuesday night.

"There's got to be somebody in West Virginia with a front-end loader and a dump truck," said Summers, a Charleston, S.C., driver bound for Canada. "If this was the highway commissioner's wife and kids, we would have left here yesterday. It's ridiculous."

By early today, at least nine deaths were blamed on the weather and power was still out for 258,000 customers in eastern Tennessee, West Virginia and North Carolina. Highways were clogged by ice, snow and snowbound vehicles.

Carolina Power and Light, which had 20,000 customers without power, was planning to send 450 workers into the field today, more than four times the usual number.

"Travel is very difficult," utility representative Sally Ramey said today. "Even in good weather, there are many locations where there are accessibility troubles."

Four CSX freight trains became stuck along tracks in West Virginia's Fayette County where trees and power lines were toppled from heavy, wet snow, authorities said today. One of the trains carried a diabetic employee in need of insulin.

Col. Johnny Young of the West Virginia Army National Guard said a helicopter today airlifted the diabetic employee, because it would take too long for a Division of Natural Resources snowmobile to get there. By early afternoon, it wasn't known what hospital he had been taken to.

In northern Virginia, state police reported several accidents because of icy and wet roads during the morning commute, but no serious injuries.

Melting snow was expected to turn to ice by tonight, making travel conditions even trickier.

The storm largely turned to rain on the coast by Wednesday, stirring up a pounding surf that washed one empty house and part of another into the Atlantic Ocean near Virginia Beach, Va.

But it was the heavy snow was that caught the region off-guard.

"This was worse than the blizzard of February 1993," said Bobbie Freeman, the fire chief of Jonesborough, Tenn. "This snow was so wet that trees were coming down everywhere."

Buildings collapsed in Tennessee from the weight, including a barn roof caked with 20 inches of snow that killed a 68-year-old man near Erwin.

Up to 4 feet of snow fell on Roan Mountain in Tennessee's Carter County, where flooding just 2 1/2 weeks ago killed seven people. About 75 percent of the county had no power and it could be five days before service is restored, said Sheriff John Henson.

"We need a break - a flood one week and a blizzard the next. I don't know what will come next," Henson said.

Between 80,000 and 90,000 customers remained without power this morning, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. Officials predicted it could take until next week for all power to be restored.

The heavy, wet snow that started falling Tuesday afternoon forced the shutdown of government offices in 10 counties. Two state prisons were operating on emergency power and most schools were closed.

In North Carolina, National Guard troops rescued 500 motorists snowbound along I-40, taking many of them to shelters. Those shelters began to empty as snow began to melt and traffic started moving again.

"Everybody was very happy to be out of their car and off of the road," said David Hall, a Red Cross official in Haywood, N.C.

But 12 eastern and southern West Virginia counties were still under a state of emergency. Beckley, which received 32 inches, wasn't likely to get its roads cleared at least until today.

"No one's left here in 24 hours," said trucker Jeff Devaul of Bowling Green, Ohio. "My dispatcher is hollering at me to get out of here. I've got fresh produce that's going to go to waste."

"Well, it could be worse," said Lucy McPhearson, 25, who has been stuck since Tuesday evening. "We could be broken down on the highway. All the people here are nice. There's food. The bathrooms are clean. We've got blankets and pillows, and I've been sleeping."