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Region Spared Storm's Worst / At Richmond Airport, the Snow Caused Few Problems, Other Than Northern Flights

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 March 2006, 18:00 CST

By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAS

The heavy snow was a no-show in the Richmond area, much to the relief of one florist and thousands of would-be Valentines.

The snow forecast had Steve Papoulakos, president of Vogue Flowers & Gifts, worrying if there were enough four-wheel-drive vehicles among the fleet of 45 contract drivers he employs for Valentine's Day.

But yesterday, the only glitch he faced was a 24-hour delay in a shipment of tulips from Holland by way of New York, which received more than 2 feet of snow.

"We'll be fine," said Papoulakos, whose flower shipments generally arrive from Florida. "We're lucky. I feel sorry for the guys in New York and New Jersey. [On Saturday], I spoke to them. They were very concerned."

While the Richmond area received only about 1 1/2 inches of snow, flower deliveries could be a bit challenging elsewhere.

"The [regional] winner was the Northern Virginia-D.C.-Baltimore area," said meteorologist Mike Rusnak of the National Weather Service in Wakefield. "They got anywhere from 1 to 2 feet."

He said the winter storm rapidly intensified off the coast, tossing off a lot of additional moisture in that area.

Central Virginia was spared. "It didn't get cold fast enough," Rusnak said. "It ended up being more rain than snow."

The Fredericksburg area received between 7 and 8 inches of snow, while some outlying areas such as Culpeper reported 10 inches to a foot of accumulation. Sleds and snow shovels sold briskly from Culpeper to Stafford County.

Robert Stanley, who owns and operates Shannon Airport in Spotsylvania County, said the 3,000-foot-long runway was cleared of about 7 1/2 inches of snow and reopened by noon yesterday.

"It wasn't as bad as we anticipated. It was a wet snow," he said.

About 7-10 inches of snow fell on most of the Shenandoah Valley, though one area of Warren County in the north recorded more than 15 inches, said National Weather Service spokesman Brandon Peloquin.

Scores of churches canceled Sunday services.

But today, school systems in the metro Richmond area are scheduled to be open. Outside the Richmond area, closings were announced for schools in Spotyslvania and Orange counties, with delays in localities including Louisa County, where schools are to open at 10 a.m., and Fredericksburg, where a two-hour delay was announced.

The snow didn't cause many headaches yesterday at Richmond International Airport, where snow-removal crews were prepared to deal with the small amount of snow that fell there, said Troy Bell, airport spokesman.

Runways and taxiways were cleared by early yesterday morning, said Bell, who added that he didn't see anybody who appeared to be stranded.

The biggest problem was the closure of Newark Liberty International Airport and LaGuardia International Airport. There are usually about 15 round-trip flights between Richmond and the two New York-area airports. Some flights to Boston's Logan International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport were also canceled because of the weather.

"For us, this was a pretty easy storm," Bell said. "This really wasn't much of an event for us."

Contact staff writer Michael Paul Williams at mwilliams@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6815.

Times-Dispatch staff writers Dena Sloan, Kiran Krishnamurthy and Calvin R. Trice contributed to this report.

ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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