Ice Storm

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.

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.

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.

Is this the worst winter ever?"It's the worst I've seen here in 25 years," said Ken Shaver, a veteran forecaster at the National Weather Service's regional office at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.Fred Davis, the office's chief meteorologist, said that he is afraid to mention his job when he hears people talking about their weather woes in the supermarket checkout lines.But Mr. Davis was not ready to say "worst ever.""Winter's not over," he said. "We can't compare half a winter to whole winters we've had before."

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.

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.

To: Mother Nature From: The Sun staff Re: Today's forecastA winter storm watch for Western Maryland. Snow possible in Carroll and Frederick counties. Sleet mixed with rain in the metro area, just in time for morning rush hour. Talk about deja vu all over again.Yes, we know that's a baseball cliche. That's all we have left after this winter. We surrender; we raise a white flag to the white stuff. All our rhetorical weapons are exhausted against your ceaseless barrage. (Have we used "barrage" to describe the weather yet?

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.

In Baltimore CountyMinnick elected to chair county's House delegationANNAPOLIS -- Joseph J. "Sonny" Minnick, a Dundalk Democrat, has been elected chairman of the 27-member Baltimore County House delegation in Annapolis.James E. Malone Jr., whose district includes parts of Baltimore and Howard counties, was elected vice chairman, and Katherine Klausmeier, who represents parts of Perry Hall, White Marsh and Baltimore City, was elected secretary. The votes were unanimous.Hereford High exams pushed back because of ice stormHEREFORD -- Last week's ice storm has caused semester exams at Hereford High School to be delayed until Thursday.