In a bizarre twist of fate, a head-on collision
on Route 501 near Brookneal Wednesday night killed two Halifax
County residents, one en route to New York, and the other, a Cody
grandmother who was returning home from visiting family in Delaware.
A Wilmington, Delaware, man also lost his life in the accident.
Over a dozen other people were injured in the collision, at least
two critically, according to police reports.
Diane Armstrong, 47, of Fordland Drive in Halifax, died at the
scene, according to state police First Sergeant Scott Fee.
Ralph Matthew Miller, 45, of Wilmington, and his aunt, Virgie
B. Tucker of Cody, also died instantly, according to police reports.
First Sgt. Fee said that Mike Armstrong, 48, of Fordland Drive,
was traveling north on the highway when he attempted to pass a
tractor-trailer.
Armstrong's l997 Plymouth Voyager van and a 1993 Chevrolet Custom
van, driven by Miller, collided head-on.
A 1994 Chevrolet Astro van then hit the Miller vehicle in the
rear, according to the state trooper. Information about passengers
in the third vehicle was unavailable at press time.
Fee said that the dense, patchy fog along Route 501 contributed
to the accident.
"The fog definitely played a factor in the accident,"
the officer said yesterday. "On 501 last night you could
be driving along under starry skies and just a few yards away
you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you."
Among those injured in the crash were retired major league baseball
pitcher Mike Armstrong, who is in very serious but stable condition
at Lynchburg General Hospital, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Sarah Armstrong, 12, one of the couple's two daughters, was listed
in critical condition yesterday afternoon in the Pediatric Intensive
Care Unit at the University of Virginia Medical Center.
Lauren Armstrong, 15, was treated for a broken collarbone at Lynchburg
Hospital and released, according to hospital officials.
Everlean Tucker, 70, of Wilmington, Delaware, was also a passenger
in the Miller vehicle and is listed in critical condition at Lynchburg
General Hospital.
Everlean Tucker is a sister of Virgie Tucker.
Another passenger in the Miller vehicle was 7-month-old Delaware
boy, who was transported to the University of Virginia Medical
Center, where he is listed in serious condition in the Pediatric
Intensive Care Unit, according to a hospital spokesman.
A Virginia State Police Accident Reconstruction Team responded
to the scene and were continuing the investigation yesterday.
According to the state police, charges are pending the outcome
of the investigation.
Virginia State Trooper B.K. Childress, the investigating officer,
was unavailable for comment.
A friend of the Armstrong family said that the couple left choir
practice at Halifax United Methodist Church around 9 p.m. Wednesday
night to travel to New York to visit Mike Armstrong's father,
who is in the hospital.
A Halifax County Circuit Court grand jury has indicted three
county residents for murder in connection with separate incidents.
The grand jury returned an indictment Monday charging a 24-year-old
Cluster Springs woman with murder in the stabbing death of her
husband during an alleged domestic dispute in January.
Amy Ashley Lipscomb was indicted on the murder charge resulting
from the death of her husband, Clarence Lipscomb during the dispute
on January 22.
Police reported that Clarence Lipscomb was stabbed in the chest
with a kitchen knife, and was found dead outside the couple's
home in the Cluster Springs Community.
James Earl Hodge, 19, of South Boston was indicted Monday for
murder in connection with the shooting death of Douglas Witcher
during a drive-by shooting last June.
Police reported that Witcher died in the early morning of June
25, 2001, of a single gunshot wound to the head after what they
described as a drive-by shooting in the Meadville community.
Eric Shawn Edmonds, 29, of South Boston, was indicted Monday for
murder in connection with the shooting death of Thomas Jackson
during a Thanksgiving weekend altercation at American Legion Post
99 in Sinai.
Jackson was shot during an altercation between two groups of men
in the parking lot outside Post 99 on November 23, 2001, according
to police.
The Town of Halifax will soon have a massage therapy business
and council approved a special use permit for a bed and breakfast,
thanks to the town council.
Terry Spell and Barbara Cage got their requests approved by Halifax
Town Council Tuesday night.
Spell will be able to operate a massage therapy business out of
her home, and Cage was approved for the special use permit to
operate a bed and breakfast facility in the Town of Halifax.
Council had received a letter from the town planning commission
that outlined the restrictions in the existing town ordinance,
and had to change the R-1 residential zoning of the Halifax Road
property.
Both the Spell and Cage requests passed unanimously.
In other business, council passed a resolution asking that "Back
Street" be included in the secondary street system.
Including the quarter-mile street in the system would mean that
the state would be responsible for maintainance, Town Manager
Bobby Greene said.
Council also voted to allow Greene to start getting funds to bring
water and sewer lines into the Crawford Road sub-division.
Greene said that the town has a line of credit with Wachovia Bank
that allows the town to receive loans for this project at 3 percent
interest.
The town is also trying to get funding for the project from state
sources, the town manager said.
Contracting bids were opened on February 12, and the low bid was
Carter Henderson at $88,025.00, Greene said.
Construction for the project could begin as soon as the Health
Department approves the project.
Council member H.C. Phillips reported to the council that the
new high-band radios for the fire department were working well,
and suggested that council allow volunteer fire and rescue personnel
to continue getting motor vehicle decals at a reduced rate.
A proposal was put before council to allow the decals to expire
on April 15 to allow all jurisdictions to expire at the same time.
Currently decals in the Town of Halifax expire on June 30.
Walk into the Hudson home in Virgilina and you could get run
over.
Eli Hudson is a five-year-old who is active, to say the least.
He slides down the railing of the family staircase.
He plays with the family dog, and he rides four-wheelers.
He doesn't have a girlfriend, at least not yet, he confides.
But Eli is a special kid.
He was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes in January of 2000, and
today he is really happy that he just got his friend Rufus in
the mail.
Rufus, a diabetes awareness bear, arrived in the Virgilina home
of the Hudson family last Friday as part of a 12-month trip that
will put him in the homes of children with diabetes in at least
200 cities and a dozen countries.
"The bears are something that diabetic children are given
to help them cope with the disease," said Donna Hudson, Eli's
mother.
"It was very important to Eli that he get the bear. He even
talks to him at night," she said.
Rufus' trip is a project of ChildrenWithDiabetes.com, a website
that promotes understanding of the care and treatment of diabetes.
Hudson said that Rufus arrived with a journal of his travels that
had been filled out by the families he had visited.
"It came with pictures and stories of the kids, so Eli would
know that he is not alone," she said.
The trip was the idea of a New York family that participates in
online support through the Children With Diabetes web site and
the idea quickly took off.
Families hosting the cuddly bear take Rufus or Ruby, the female
diabetes bear, on tours of their communities. The daily life of
the child with diabetes is also chronicled in the journal.
"Parents of kids with diabetes want more people to understand
what their kids go through each day," said Jeff Hitchcock,
president and CEO of Children with Diabetes.
"This trip with Rufus is an effort to create awareness and
understanding. We want to let our kids be kids, but we need help
from our friends, family, neighbors, teachers and caregivers."
Hudson agrees.
"Eli has had a great deal of help from his teachers at Virgilina
Elementary School, and he can live a normal life with diabetes
if he is careful," she said.
Hudson added that she only hopes that her son will cultivate the
type of friends who will be able to help her son.
"Eli will never get better or worse, once you are diagnosed
with (juvenile) diabetes, you will always have the disease,"
Hudson said.
"What makes the difference is the way you handle it,"
she added.
Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes, most often appears in childhood
or the teenage years. It affects more than two million people
in the U.S. alone.
In Type I diabetes, the pancreas ceases to manufacture insulin,
a hormone necessary to convert the food we eat into energy for
the body.
Treatment requires a strict regimen that typically includes a
carefully calculated diet, planned physical activity, home blood
glucose testing several times a day, and multiple daily insulin
injections.
"Every day is an adventure when your child has diabetes,"
Hudson said.
"But Eli has done really well with it," she added.
Hudson said that she was really lucky that the doctor diagnosed
Eli's condition early.
"Eli was diagnosed before he got into real trouble, if we
had waited a couple of more days, it could have been life-threatening,"
she said.
Hitchcock said Rufus and Ruby will be visiting coast-to-coast,
as well as in Canada, the Netherlands, Finland, The United Kingdom,
Denmark, the Philippines, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico,
New Zealand, and Australia.
Each family hosting Rufus or Ruby will photograph the diabetes
bear in their local surroundings.
"Our kids must endure shots and finger pricks for blood glucose
testing daily," Hitchcock said.
"On top of that they face misinformed people who think they
developed their diabetes from over-eating or eating too much junk
food; that they will outgrow it; or that they cannot fully participate
in sports or other normal activities. None of that is true,"
he said.
Hitchcock said The Rufus Travels are intended to localize and
personalize the story of children with juvenile diabetes, showcasing
at each stop a particular child's story of what one day in their
life with the condition is like.
Eli will keep Rufus for a couple of weeks, and then send him on
to his next stop.
"From here, he is going to Pierre, South Dakota," Hudson
said.
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Increased rainfall seems to be in store for
the dry Eastern states in coming weeks, but not enough to break
the grip of drought, forecasters said Thursday.
National Weather Service meteorologists anticipate only limited
relief - if any - from the drought.
''The drought in some areas will worsen as we move into the warmer
months, when demand for water is greatest, said NOAA Administrator
Conrad Lautenbacher, Jr.
''Nearly four years of little rain and snow in some places has
left many areas with deep water deficits,'' he said. ''Changing
weather patterns may offer a glimmer of hope, but we don't see
the water levels returning to normal anytime soon.''
Similar dry conditions persist in the West, where winter snowfall
has been light and predicted early spring rains may be near-normal
but not nearly enough to alleviate current drought conditions,
the forecasters said.
''The weather patterns of late fall and winter are causing the
drought conditions,'' said National Weather Service Director Jack
Kelly. ''We can point to a persistent high-pressure pattern that
kept the jet stream and storm track away from the East most of
that time, making matters worse in areas that were already dry.
In the next few weeks we expect the jet stream to continue dipping
more to the south, bringing moisture up from the Gulf of Mexico
toward the Eastern seaboard,'' he said.
Several places in the Southeast have accumulated moisture deficits
of more than 30 inches since 1998.
''For some areas, this is comparable to missing a full year of
rain,'' Kelly said. ''It will take a period of above normal, well
distributed rainfall during the next four months to eliminate
most aspects of the drought in the East.''
In the West, states suffering the worst conditions are Arizona,
Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, portions of Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico,
Oklahoma, Kansas and parts of western Texas.
The entire state of Wyoming has been declared a drought disaster
area. The coastal region of the West is not experiencing drought
conditions.
''Water supply forecasts are also bleak for parts of the West.
In some areas, snow cover is only half of the normal and forecasts
indicate flows on rivers, critical to meeting water supply needs,
are also expected to be half of normal,'' Kelly said.
The dry conditions raise the danger of wildfires in both regions.
Tom Karl, director the National Climatic Data Center, said the
contiguous United States experienced its 14th driest winter and
fifth warmest winter. Meteorological winter is December to February.
The Northeast had its second driest and second warmest September-February
in 107 years of record keeping. During the same period, the Southeast
had its seventh driest, and the Southwest its fourth driest.
Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, Arizona and Massachusetts
posted their driest September to February ever.
Among other drought findings reported:
-New York City reservoir storage is 50 percent below normal.
-Rain and snowfall in Washington, D.C., is 70 percent below normal
for the September to February period, a 13-inch deficit.
-North-central Montana is in its sixth year of drought with rain
and snowfall deficits less than half of normal.
By JUSTIN BERGMAN
Associated Press Writer
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Governor Mark R. Warner on Wednesday ordered
all state agencies to conserve water and urged residents to cut
back, as well, as an East Coast drought showed few signs of abating
despite a wet start to March.
''Because long-term weather forecasts do not hold the promise
of enough rainfall to reverse the dry trend, we must take steps
now to be prepared for worsening conditions,'' Warner said in
a statement.
He said state agencies, colleges and universities should develop
water conservation plans for their buildings and facilities. He
encouraged all Virginians to restrict water use, particularly
outdoors.
''Rather than mandate what agencies do or don't do, we expect
they have good ideas on ways to cut back their uses of water,''
governor spokesman Kevin Hall said. ''We're leaving it up to them.''
Though rainfall returned to normal levels in parts of the state
this month, weather experts say it's not enough to immediately
reverse four years of below-average precipitation. Northern and
western Virginia have been particularly affected.
''What we need is several months of above normal rainfall,'' said
Melody Paschetag, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service
in Sterling.
Mandatory water restrictions already exist in Roanoke, where the
city's main reservoir has fallen to its lowest level in 15 years.
The city is saving more than one million gallons of water a day
since the restrictions went into place a month ago, Roanoke city
officials said.
Restrictions are also being discussed in Charlottesville, as all
three of the city's reservoirs are low. One, Sugar Hollow Reservoir,
is half-full.
In northern Virginia, the Potomac River is flowing at about half
its normal rate. Area streams and ground water levels are also
down.
Hall said agriculture officials have received requests for federal
disaster aid from a dozen localities around the state. Goochland
County in central Virginia is already receiving federal drought
relief from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Hall said.
Because of lack of snow on the ground, spring fires appear to
be coming weeks ahead of schedule, too, said Paul Head of the
National Park Service office in Boston.
He called a 4,200-acre fire that burned for about a week in the
Shenandoah National Park last month ''one of the bigger spring
fires we've had.''
The state's Drought Monitoring Task Force met last week to discuss
the possibility of the drought worsening this summer to rival
the drought of 1930, the worst on record in Virginia. The task
force will study the impacts of such a drought on the state's
agriculture industry.
---
On the Net:
The Virginia State Climatology Office: http://climate.virginia.edu/report2.htm
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Drought Update:
http://www.drought.noaa.gov/
---
Associated Press Writer Derrill Holly contributed to this report.
Lizzie Bell Fields, 100, of Boodie Trail, South Boston, died March
13 at the Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mrs. Fields was born in Halifax on September 15, 1901, the daughter
of John and Amanda Robinson Long and was married to the late Preston
T. Fields. She was a member of the Dan River Bethel Baptist Church.
Her survivors include two sisters: Pearl Morgan and Carolina Oliver;
brother: Mr. Herbert Long; grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held Tuesday, March 19 at 1 p.m. at
the Dan River Bethel Baptist Church with Rev. James Thomas officiating.
Burial will take place in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends at Dunn
& Sons Funeral Home, 540 N. Main St., Halifax, on Monday,
March 18 from 7-8 p.m. and other times at the home.
William Albert Buchanan, 74, of 1058 W. Oak Hill Drive, Halifax,
died March 13 at Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mr. Buchanan was born in Crewe on June 21, 1927, the son of Samuel
Mason Buchanan and Virgie Mae Rickman Buchanan. He was married
to Lois Childrey Buchanan and was a member of Ash Avenue Baptist
Church where he was a longtime member of the choir. He was also
a member of American Legion Post 8 and was a retired supervisor
from JPS Converter.
His survivors include his wife; one daughter: Pamela and Jerry
Crenshaw of South Boston; two grandchildren: Chris Crenshaw of
Virginia Beach and Cathy Crenshaw of Cary, NC; sister: Louise
Smith of Colonial Heights. He was preceded in death by his parents
and two brothers: James and Ralph Buchanan.
A funeral service will be held today, March
15, at 2 p.m. at Ash Avenue Baptist Church with the Rev. John
Eure officiating. Burial will take place in the Halifax Memorial
Gardens.
The family requests for memorials to please consider the Halifax
County Cancer Association, P.O. Box 875, South Boston or the Ash
Avenue Baptist Church.
Ester May Talbott Glasscock, 76, of 1068 Covered Bridge Trail,
Virgilina, died March 14 at Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mrs. Glasscock was born on May 20, 1925 in Halifax County, the
daughter of the late Charlie and Lorena Gazee Talbott. She was
married to Howard George Glasscock and was a member of Grace Baptist
Church where she was a member of the WMU. She was a former employee
of Tultex and J.P. Stevens.
Her survivors include her husband; three daughters: Jane Davis
of Virgilina, Geraldine Thompson of Halifax and Corrina Rogers
of Florida; two sons: William Hite of Salem and George Glasscock
of Halifax; sister: Mildred Guthrie; two brothers: Edward Talbott
of Cluster Springs and W.C. Talbott of Wallace, NC; 14 grandchildren;
great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded
in death by three brothers: Coleman, Clifton and Luther Talbott
and a sister: Ruth Puryear.
A funeral service will be held Saturday,
March 16 at 2 p.m. at Brooks Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev.
Jack Stewart officiating. Burial will be held in Grace Baptist
Church cemetery, Virgilina.
Visitation will be held tonight, March 15 from 7-8:30 p.m. and
at other times at the home of Jane Davis, 1072 Covered Bridge
Trail, Virgilina.