Ice Storm

EASTON -- Foresters estimate that up to 40 percent of the trees in a band extending from Southern Maryland across the mid-Eastern Shore incurred "severe damage" during a rare, extended ice storm earlier this month."

A hazardous mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow fell across the Baltimore region yesterday and into this morning, threatening to create dangerously icy roadways for the early commute. Two inches of snow and about a half-inch of ice were expected to accumulate, with temperatures plummeting into the teens and wind gusts topping 40 mph by the storm's end this evening, according to forecasts. Most public school systems around the region dismissed children hours early yesterday in anticipation of the storm, and Carroll County simply closed schools for the day - with the status of school openings across much of the state uncertain today.

ROCKVILLE -- All that's left of the Washington region's crippling January ice storm is a towering stack of wood chips and mound of bad feelings.The Montgomery County Council met with representatives of three power companies yesterday to find out why it took up to five days to restore electricity to more than 190,000 county homes and businesses.The council also heard about a continuing cleanup that is expected to generate enough wood chips from fallen branches and trees to cover a football field to a depth of 80 feet.

A quarter-million Maryland homes remained without power in the wake of Hurricane Floyd yesterday, with residents jamming phone lines for help and scurrying for scarce dry ice to preserve refrigerators full of rapidly spoiling food.Adding to the chaos of the storm's aftermath was what utility officials called a freak occurrence: the loss of power to a major Baltimore waste treatment plant, causing a damaged pump to spew millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Jones Falls -- bound for the Inner Harbor.

LAST WEEK'S ice storm transformed our town into a winter wonderland, changing bare branches into gorgeous crystal creations.But with power outages and schools closed throughout the county, regular routines were disrupted.Between closings because of icy weather and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, schoolchildren in Howard County found themselves with an unexpected five-day weekend.For the youngsters, a snow day is an opportunity to miss school and play outside. But when school is canceled because of ice, it's a different story.

The two-day ice storm that began Jan. 14 cost Howard County $89,500 to clean up, according to county highway chief Andrew Daneker, who said that is about a third more than a snowstorm without ice would have cost.The rain-ice combination required at least four saltings of roads, requiring 2,000 tons of salt and 880 tons of cinders on more than 900 miles of local roads. Salt costs $30 a ton.County highway crews have completed collection of broken tree limbs and debris in western Howard, and continue working in the Columbia and Ellicott City areas, Daneker said.

About 30,000 households lost power yesterday afternoon when high winds, rain and lightning hit the Baltimore area, even as utility crews worked to restore electricity to customers still without it after last week's ice storm.Before the latest blast of weather, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. crews had restored power at about 3: 20 p.m. to all but about 6,300 households, the majority of them in Carroll and Howard counties.But within the hour, lightning struck and winds gusting up to 70 mph toppled power lines.

From the Washington suburbs to the Pennsylvania line, tens of thousands of Marylanders shivered with no electricity yesterday while others struggled to clear downed trees and branches and the governor declared a state of emergency in six counties.Just before midnight last night, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. reported that 75,000 customers were still without power.At its peak, more than 332,000 customers -- 119,000 in the Baltimore area -- lost electric service as tree limbs weighted with melting ice toppled across power lines, forcing BGE to summon out-of-state crews for the first time in almost two decades.

For the innovative in an ice storm, life goes on without water, heat and electricity -- but adapting can be a struggle, as some Carroll County families found out.Families in Woodbine were among the more than 350,000 Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers who lost power as ice-laden limbs began snapping and falling on utility wires in Central Maryland last week.Still, few anticipated being left in the dark for more than a day.Kelee Norris, a 31-year-old mother of two boys, sure didn't.Her husband, Edward, a Montgomery County firefighter, was halfway to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for a weeklong golf outing on Friday when the lights went out at their home in the 600 block of Hoods Mill Road, a half-mile from the Howard County line.

Five days after ice and wind storms knocked out electricity to some 350,000 Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers in the metropolitan area, power was completely restored by 3: 30 p.m. yesterday.The widespread problem -- concentrated most heavily in Howard and Carroll counties -- demanded the efforts of more than 800 BGE field employees, who worked around the clock in 18-hour shifts.What few outages remained last night were not related to the storms, said BGE spokeswoman Nancy Kaplan."Howard County was the last district we were working on -- not that it was hit harder, but there's a lot of trees, and some of the areas are harder to get to," said Kaplan.

Iraqi provincial elections see 50 percent turnout BAGHDAD: Just more than half of Iraq's 15 million registered voters cast ballots in weekend provincial elections, with turnout as low as 40 percent in at least one province, but Iraqi and international officials insisted yesterday that they were satisfied with the participation. U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker characterized the turnout as "large," and Iraq's top election official called it the most important election to take place since the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein.

A late-afternoon ice storm yesterday left dozens of wrecked cars littered along major roads and brought traffic on the highways to a standstill, leaving commuters bumper-to-bumper for hours. In Harford County, 23 people were injured in an accident involving a Harford Transit bus and several cars on Route 22 in Churchville about 4:30 p.m., said Sgt. Christina Presberry, spokeswoman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office. The victims, all with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, were taken to Upper Chesapeake and Harford Memorial hospitals.

The successor to Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII in the great pantheon of calendar-tinkerers has emerged in Baltimore: Sheila Dixon. Per mayoral decree, yesterday, Feb. 15, was Valentine's Day in Charm City. And by the powers vested in City Hall's second floor, it will remain Valentine's Day through Sunday. "We're going to keep the love alive a few extra days," declared Dixon, decked out in a bright red dress and surrounded by heart-shaped balloons, fancy pastries and enough flowers to make City Hall smell like a funeral parlor.

A hazardous mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow fell across the Baltimore region yesterday and into this morning, threatening to create dangerously icy roadways for the early commute. Two inches of snow and about a half-inch of ice were expected to accumulate, with temperatures plummeting into the teens and wind gusts topping 40 mph by the storm's end this evening, according to forecasts. Most public school systems around the region dismissed children hours early yesterday in anticipation of the storm, and Carroll County simply closed schools for the day - with the status of school openings across much of the state uncertain today.

Joan Allen jumped onto movie-lovers' radar almost 20 years ago in one of the most sensuous and berserk scenes ever filmed. In Manhunter (1986), she played a blind woman stroking the fur, muzzle and fangs of a drugged but semiconscious tiger, feeling its warm breath on her flesh and pressing her ear to its pounding heart. Her wholesome, direct features lit up with excitement and delight. For seconds, she became a red-hot beauty. That didn't happen often for the next decade and a half. She began to get cast (and win acclaim)

It takes a few beats staring at the screen -- or the poster -- before the "I know her" kicks in. That really is Katie Holmes underneath the dyed frosted hair, the pigtails, the SoHo chic wardrobe, the boots and the tattoos. Right, that Katie Holmes: the baby-faced Dawson's Creek ingenue with the tomboy name (Joey Potter) and the Ivory soap image. It's a very different Holmes who is front and center in the family drama Pieces of April, opening tomorrow, having noisy sex with her boyfriend and clumsily trying to dress an uncooperative turkey.

Milton Ay Yuhn, retired General Motors Corp. supervisor, died Monday while being taken from a hospital to a nursing home after suffering a fall nearly a month ago. The Parkville resident was 92. Born in Baltimore and raised on Cliftmont Avenue, he attended city public schools until the seventh grade. Mr. Yuhn told family members he left the city at age 16 and traveled across the country by jumping on railroad boxcars. He lived in California for several years before returning home and working in a relative's gas station.

Their first school board meeting was delayed two hours by an ice storm and punctuated by an angry mob of parents. Ann M. Ballard and Joseph D. Mish Jr. called it a "baptism by fire." Their last meeting this month, though much less eventful, was a bit rushed - because of an approaching ice storm. In between the storms - a span of 10 years - Ballard and Mish saw the school system through some of its best and worst years. There were years - 1994, 1996 and 1997 - when Carroll schools ranked second in the state, barely trailing Howard County in Maryland's annual pupil assessment exams despite being severely outspent by its affluent neighbor to the south.

Their first school board meeting was delayed two hours by an ice storm and punctuated by an angry mob of parents. Ann M. Ballard and Joseph D. Mish Jr. called it a "baptism by fire." Their last meeting this month, though much less eventful, was a bit rushed - because of an approaching ice storm. In between the storms - a span of 10 years - Ballard and Mish saw the school system through some of its best and worst years. There were years - 1994, 1996 and 1997 - when Carroll schools ranked second in the state, barely trailing Howard County in Maryland's annual pupil assessment exams despite being severely outspent by its affluent neighbor to the south.

CUT MORE limbs, bury more lines, prepare more crews. Communicate and cooperate better. Those are the marching orders given to Maryland power companies from a governor's task force investigating massive, extended blackouts from a hurricane and an ice storm last year. Four communities, including Annapolis and Ocean City, will test the feasibility of moving neighborhood electric lines from overhead to underground. The state will put $4 million into those pilot programs. Although Maryland has required that power distribution lines installed since 1969 be buried, most system lines are still overhead and vulnerable to high winds and icing.