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Ice Topples 2 TV Station Towers in N.C.

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From Times Wire Services

Two television towers weighted down with ice toppled Sunday near Raleigh, N.C., and thousands of Easterners remained without power as a wintry storm moved out to sea.

Towers for WPTF-TV and WRAL-TV, both Raleigh stations, collapsed within half an hour of each other, spokesmen for the stations said. The towers stand side-by-side in Auburn, just south of Raleigh.

Witnesses said it appeared that melting ice destabilized the structures. WPTF estimated the damage to its 2,000-foot tower at $6 million and said it could be weeks before the station would be broadcasting at full power.

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“I heard something. It sounded like ice . . . and . . . I saw it folding up just like an accordion or folding ladder,” said Sue Williams, who lives near the towers.

Next to the two, a tower for WTVD-TV of Durham was left leaning to one side under the weight of the ice.

The storm blew in Friday, dumping several inches of snow in the state’s northern mountains, and began crawling across North Carolina, spitting sleet and glazing roads with ice.

The ice wreaked havoc on the state’s electrical lines, which broke under the weight of ice and falling tree limbs.

A North Carolina Power spokesman said 9,500 of the utility’s 90,000 customers remained without electricity Sunday, most of them in the Williamston and Ahoskie areas, and in rural areas adjacent to Roanoke Rapids.

Some had been without light or heat nearly 24 hours, he said.

Duke Power Co. said 10,000 Charlotte-area customers were temporarily without power.

Carolina Power & Light Co. spokesman Wayne Ennis said 3,600 of the utility’s customers remained without electricity Sunday morning, mostly in the Fayetteville, Henderson and Warrenton areas.

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The National Weather Service said snow fell Sunday from western New York to Montana.

In Colorado, heavy snow hampered traffic and caused delays at Denver’s Stapleton International Airport and caused a 12-car pileup on Interstate 25 near Johnstown that blocked traffic for two hours. A motorist’s death in Colorado Springs was blamed on the storm.

In southeastern Virginia, utility crews worked to restore power to 40,000 residents. Cloudy skies and further cold air prevented a thaw of roads made impassable by ice left by Friday and Saturday’s wintry wallop in the East.

The ice made it “literally impossible to travel” on roads Sunday and weighted down tree limbs, breaking some branches in southern Virginia, one weather service report said. The statement advised motorists to stay off the streets.

Paul Parks of country radio station WKRE in Exmore said the storm knocked him off the air for 48 1/2 hours. “Our antenna was a big giant Popsicle. It was frozen solid as a rock.”

Snowfall overnight measured 11 inches at Winner, S.D., 6 inches at Pickstown, S.D., 3 to 6 inches over northwest Iowa, 5 inches at Newcastle, Neb., and Yankton, S.D., 4 inches at Laurel and Bloomfield, Neb., and 3 inches at Rapid City S.D., and over upper Michigan.

The low temperature for the Lower 48 states was 21 degrees below zero at Houlton, Me.

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