The Winter That Refused to Die

By Anastasia Toufexis

Desolation and escapes from tragedy amid April's ill winds

Warm-weather fashions draped the mannequins in department-store windows. Spruced-up stadiums awaited the opening ceremonies of the baseball season. Dogwood and azaleas were in bloom, and the calendar insisted that spring was entering its third week and Easter was just days off. But then the winter that would not go away struck again, blasting much of the nation last week with freezing temperatures, blustery winds and snowstorms that would have seemed excessive for February.

The sudden plunge back into the ice age sent statisticians to the record books. According to the National Weather Service, temperatures for April plummeted to new lows in seven U.S. cities, including 6DEGF in Flint, Mich., and 26DEG in Augusta, Ga., where torrential rains interrupted the first round of the Masters golf tournament. In Virginia, turbulent winds fanned a fire that destroyed the outdoor performing-arts center at Wolf Trap Farm National Park. In Detroit, a 6-in. snowfall brought the winter's total to 73 in.--the most for the motor city in more than 50 years. In New York City, where winds of up to 35 m.p.h. swirled at least a foot of snow, the National Weather Service officially declared the storm a blizzard, the first ever recorded in the area for the month. With thoughtful understatement a service meteorologist observed, "It's been an unusual April."

Even in areas of the country that were spared snow, ill winds brought destruction and death. Over the past two weeks, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi and Florida have been hit by at least 23 tornadoes. The toll: 26 dead, more than 300 injured and about $55 million in property damage. Governors of three states have already asked the Federal Government to declare the affected communities disaster areas. Farther north, the snows that blanketed the Midwest and Northeast claimed at least 40 lives. In Iowa, five people died in traffic accidents after a storm with 40-m.p.h. winds dropped 8 in. of snow. Disaster was narrowly averted in Harrington Park, N.J., where a foot of snow stalled a bus at a railroad crossing. Minutes after Driver Peter Woelfel coolly ordered his 16 passengers out, a 53-car freight train tore through the crossing, smashing the bus in two. Forty-foot waves and winds of up to 90 m.p.h. along the Atlantic Coast raised fears of another oil-rig disaster. Operators of the Zapata Saratoga rig, anchored 110 miles off Nantucket Island, asked the Coast Guard to evacuate 50 of its workers; luckily, the storm abated and the rescue operation was called off.

Fruit and vegetable growers from the Carolinas to Florida experienced less good fortune. Georgia apple farmers, worried about low temperatures of 22DEG in the northern mountains where about half the state's $4 million apple crop is grown, sprayed their orchards with water to form protective ice around the buds. Iowa State University Veterinarian John Herrick, noting that testicular frostbite can interfere with sperm production, urged ranchers to check their bulls for sterility. But for some the weather proved a financial boon. Ski-resort operators in New Jersey and New Hampshire, with a foot of new snow, extended their seasons.

For most people, though, the stormy weather was an exasperating nuisance. Schools closed, businesses and offices shut down early, airports canceled flights. Communities scrambled to get snow-removal equipment out of storage and back on the roads. Driving in the snow proved more difficult than usual since many motorists had removed steel-studded snow tires. The Boston area logged pile-ups involving 20, 30, 35 and 50 cars. Said Jerry Zundell, a Massachusetts state police trooper: "It was just like a demolition derby."

There was an unexpected happy ending to one tragedy. At the Alpine Meadows ski resort in Squaw Valley, Calif., which a week earlier had been heavily damaged by an avalanche that killed seven people, Ski Patrolman Lanny Johnson last Monday was shoveling away snow, looking for bodies, when he saw a wiggling hand. Digging down, he discovered Anna Conrad, 22, who had been buried alive under 8 ft. of snow for five days.

Caught in an air pocket in the resort's wreckage, she had subsisted on melting snow. Doctors said she was in remarkably good condition except for her feet, which were so severely frostbitten that they may have to be amputated. "I never lost hope," Conrad said. "I just knew they'd come for me."

--By Anastasia Toufexis.

--Reported by Peter Stoler/New York and John E. Yang/Boston

With reporting by Peter Stoler, John E. Yang

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