U.S. South shivers

Press, 14 January 1982, Page 1

U.S. South shivers

NZPA-Reuter New York , A big storm has spread ice and snow across the southern part of the United States from Texas to Georgia, turning highways into ice-skating rinks after a cold wave that has killed 102 people and devastated Florida’s billiondollar citrus crop. Sleet or snow fell in a 1930 km swath yesterday from Del Rio, Texas, across Louisiana. Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, forcing schools and offices to close and causing hundreds of traffic accidents in southern cities ill-prepared for Arctic weather.

Natural gas and electricity ran short, water pipes burst, and many highways had to be blocked off because of ice in such unlikely places as New Orleans. Rush hour in cities from Dallas to Atlanta found streets turned to parking spaces as vehicles stalled on ice-slickened streets. The Governor of Louisiana (Mr David Treen) called up one unit of the National Guard, put the rest on standby, and ordered all state agencies to be prepared for a disaster. Two thousand British Army reservists yesterday battled to clear snow-blocked highways in Wales to reach villages cut off for five days and running out of food as northern Europe dug its way out of the worst winter blizzards for years. Wales has borne the brunt of the winter storms and was virtually cut off from the rest of Britain during the week-end. Police patrols have been stepped up in South Wales as looters and confidence tricksters moved in to rob snow-

damaged shops and to exploit widespread shortages in communities isolated by the freezing conditions.

The authorities in other European countries reported that conditions were improving in most places under clear skies. But the region still shivered in sub-zero temperatures that have iced up harbours and inland waterways and caused traffic chaos. Some snowfalls were reported in Austria, the southern Netherlands, and Czechoslovakia. Weather bureaux forecast some improvement over the next few days, but not that temperatures were not expected to rise above freezing. The coldest spot in Ireland was Birr, the national weather service said yesterday. Overnight temperatures fell to — 23 deg. in the County Offaly town of about 3300 residents, 10 km southwest of Dublin.