Storm Strikes East as Midwest Digs Out : High Winds, Snow Strand Travelers, Isolate Thousands in Homes

High winds and snow pushed through the Atlantic Coast states Saturday while highway crews in the Midwest worked to clear roads clogged by snow from a near-blizzard that stranded motorists, kept students at schools overnight and caused many traffic pileups.

Blizzard-like conditions that stretched from Illinois to New Jersey last week were blamed for 15 deaths--five in Indiana, two each in Kentucky, Ohio, North Dakota and Maine and one each in Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Snow and gusty winds continued to plague the Appalachians Saturday after socking the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes.

The storm brought twice as much snow as expected at Preston County, W.Va., setting back efforts to reach thousands of persons who had been stuck in their homes for eight days by an earlier blast of winter. The West Virginia mountains got 50 inches of snow in the last week.

Strong winds whipped snow into blinding swirls that cut visibility to zero and blocked roads with drifts. Numerous accidents were reported across Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, including a 23-vehicle pileup on Interstate 77 near Akron, Ohio.

The fast-moving storm came on the heels of a bitter cold wave blamed for 176 deaths in 23 states and the District of Columbia since Jan. 18. It returned freezing daytime temperatures to the East after a brief respite, with highs in the teens from the upper Great Lakes across the northern Ohio Valley to northern New England, and in the 20s and low 30s across the rest of the Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic states.

The cold air reached into the South as well, with overnight lows in the teens and 20s. Greenville, S.C., set a new record of 17 degrees for the date, breaking the old record of 20 set in 1977, and Meridian, Miss., recorded a new record of 19, breaking the old figure of 23 set in 1955. Huntsville, Ala., tied its record low of 13 set in 1978, and Asheville, N.C., tied its 1977 low of 11.

In the West Virginia mountains, Charles Trembly, the Weather Service observer for Preston County, said 12 inches of new snow fell at his station between 6 a.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday, double the six inches forecast. Trembly said that brought the total snowfall in the last week to 50 inches.

Snow backed by 45-m.p.h. winds created massive snowdrifts across roads that Department of Highways crews have been trying to clear, with little success, since last weekend in an effort to free 15,000 snowbound residents.

“If we can ever get ahead of the game, we’ll be in good shape, but the wind is working against us,” said Jack Wills, the county’s deputy emergency services director.

Other snow totals included 10 inches at Parker, Pa.; eight inches at Canaan Valley, W.Va., and seven inches at Dailey, Elkins and Snowshoe, all in West Virginia, and at Lowville, Pa.

In Ohio, hundreds of students and teachers who had been stranded at their schools headed home after diminishing winds improved visibility and gave road crews a chance to clear drifts.

About 800 students, along with teachers and 80 stranded motorists, spent the night in six buildings of the Madison Plains school district near Columbus, Supt. Tom Shoemaker said.

Madison County sheriff’s deputies used snowmobiles to get medicine to the stranded students, including one who is a diabetic and needed insulin, Sheriff Steve Saltsman said.