Evan Jones
Repairs to the Roanoke County administration building have moved more quickly than first anticipated, and as a result, it will open earlier than first announced. The air conditioning conked out Friday — before the storm — but repairs couldn’t begin until the power came back Tuesday afternoon. County officials say while the ventilation system is not entirely repaired, it is once again working sufficiently enough to allow the administration center to re-open Friday morning.
It’s been almost five days since those destructive storms moved through, and home centers are still trying to keep up with the demand for relief supplies. At the Hunting Hills Home Depot, for instance, hundreds more generators recently came in, and managers expect they’ll all go. The store was out of flashlight batteries until new supplies recently arrived, and earlier today, they were out of heavy duty extension cords. WFIR’s Evan Jones has the story.
More than a dozen cooling shelters remain open across central and southwest Virginia to help people dealing with no power, no air conditioning and food that spoiled days ago. WFIR’s Evan Jones visited the shelter at the Roanoke Civic Center.
(Continue reading for a list of area cooling centers.) Continue reading
Appalachian Power reports more than 138,000 customers still without power in its Virginia service area as of 9:30 this morning, down from almost 200,000 one day earlier. WFIR’s Evan Jones spoke with Apco’s President at the utility’s Roanoke staging area.
Here is a longer form version of Evan’s interview with Appalachian Power President Charles Patton:
It’s been many years since Roanoke has seen a steam locomotive in action, but that will change in coming weekends as a restored Southern Railroad engine makes several appearances. It will pull a Norfolk Southern excursion from Greensboro to Roanoke this Sunday and some railroad employee excursions out of Roanoke the following weekend. WFIR’s Evan Jones has the story.
This Sunday’s excursion is sold out, but another heads out of Roanoke for Pulaski and Bristol July 7th. Click here for more information.
Bedford Co. Sheriff’s photo – June 2010
It’s been just over two years since a goat was found hogtied in a car’s trunk on a hot day just like today. But “Trunk”, as he became known, is apparently doing just fine on at Johnson’s Orchards in Bedford County. The owner says “Trunk” remains an attraction, thanks to all the news coverage from 2010. WFIR’s Evan Jones has our Trunk update.
Downtown Roanoke is not only likely to look much different in coming decades, it is also likely to include locations that have never been part of the center city’s past. Two recent City Council decisions place properties along South Jefferson Street all the way out to River’s Edge Sports Complex as part of “downtown” — with the belief an expanded downtown is vital to the region’s long-term growth and economic health. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more.
A Radford University criminal justice professor says police and prosecutors are sometimes able to gain murder convictions in cases where a body is never found. Tod Burke’s comments come one day after Franklin County investigators say they are treating a woman’s two-month disappearance as a criminal investigation, a disappearance preceded by a “violent event.” More from WFIR’s Evan Jones.