The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 2

2A Friday, January 17, 2003 THE TENNESSEAN www.tennessean.com 3 FROM PAGE ONE Mdstate businesses react to weather extremes Tips to remsmbsr when driving on hazardous roads ji duction and administratioa Similarly, BellSouth's L500-plus Middle Tennessee workers were expected to be on the job yesterday, spokesman Kenny Blackburn said. "We provide an essential service the public relies on heavily, especially during conditions of extreme weather," he said. Call volume was up, but service remained in place. Car and truck production continued at Nissan North America's Smyrna plant, said Tom Groom, director of human resources. weren't essential to operations, said site Human Resources Manager Ron Bergthold.

"It's a 24-hour operation out here," he said. "It would be a bigger deal" to shut down operations. DuPont's production teams are "used to knowing that even in poor weather they're going to have to come in because if they don't, someone's going to have to stay over," he said. The plant makes synthetic fabrics and chemicals related to polyester productioa It employs 700 workers in pro Other businesses balanced deadlines, service demands, workers' family situations and safety, and decided to close many at midmorning when it became clear this was no ordinary Nashville snowstorm. At the Bohan advertising and marketing firm in Nashville's gulch area just west of down-towa about a quarter of the company's 60 workers remained after the firm closed at 11 am They stayed put, said its president, David Bohaa because it was preferable to getting stuck in traffic.

At the same time that Bohan was shutting dowa a recording at the Waller Lansden Dortch Davis law firm told telephone callers that "due to inclement weather, our office will be closed at 11 am." The recording also instructed callers how to ring up lawyers in their offices. Most attorneys and many administrative workers stayed, said Beverly Hedrick, the firm's director of business development "We've got clients who are out of town, and we just can't close and go home," she said. By KATHY CARLSON Staff Writer Based on the traffic gridlock throughout the Nashville area, it seemed by noon yesterday that every employer had shut down its business and sent workers home. Many did, but not alL Some, like Vanderbilt University, let individual department heads or managers decide what to do. For others, it was business as usual.

At midday, management at DuPont's Old Hickory plant let employees leave if their jobs Scenes from city's snowiest day in years Chivalry isn't dead, and there's plenty of hope for America's future. College students toting a hot pizza back to a warm living room stopped on snowy, hilly Wedgewood Avenue yesterday to give a hand to some motorists who were hopelessly stuck. One coed kept the pizza pie safe while her four companions valiantly pushed and shoved until the SUV found its footing again. Other cars that couldn't get traction on the more treacherous patches got the same kind treatment. 2: VW- -ft" Drivers on Interstate 40 yesterday were in a three-way struggle to strike a balance: warm their feet, unfog their windshields, and then occasionally turn everything off to keep their engines from stalling.

Frustrated faces squinted out of frosty windows, their out-of-service cell phones clutched in hand. Those same hands were white-knuckled when the cars ahead of theirs started fishtail-ing. But when a Slush Puppy truck went by, a few motorists pointed and laughed. Across the median, a Pepsi truck driver stopped his truck, put it in park, got out and got his cooler from the back lunch time. SHELLEY MAYS STAFF Traffic on Broadway gets backed up as people try to leave downtown Nashville around 10 yesterday morning.

Union Station Hotel is In the background With snow on the ground and freezing weather expected today, road conditions may turn icy, forecasters say. If you have to be on the road, here are a few tips for safe driving from Metro Public Works and the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Leave early and drive slowly. On snow or Ice, the posted speed limit is not a safe speed. Consider packing supplies: a blanket, food and water, a flashlight and shovel and bag of salt, sand or cat-box filler for traction In case you get stuck.

Have a full tank of gas so you can keep the heat running if you get stuck. It may be a while before help arrives. TUP'S priority is injury accidents, according to spokeswoman Beth Tucker Womack. Leave more space between you and other vehicles so, if you start to slide, there is less chance of hitting another car. Avoid quick, extreme changes in direction, and dont make sudden, abrupt moves in steering, acceleration or braking.

Beware of slippery spots. Roads that are elevated, such as bridges and highway entrance and exit ramps, freeze first Low-lying shady areas are also likely to be slippery. If your car starts to slide, what you do depends on the kind of brakes you have: Regular brakes: Tap the brake pedal gently and repeatedly to slow down gradually. Anti-lock brakes: Do not, under any circumstances, tap your brakes; apply gentle, even pressure. Anti-lock brakes will not reduce skidding caused by factors other than braking, such as a steep incline.

If you begin skidding, try to regain control by carefully steering In the direction of the skid. ANITA WADHWANI Lku iMBJIWt-. i BILL STEBER STAFF Collin Brown, a state employee with the office of legal services of the General Assembly, has a snowball fight with fellow employee John Greer at War Memorial Plaza during their lunch break on the first major snowfall of 2003. Snow: Storm dumps more than 7 inches The snowfall forced one family to become inventive in going forward with a funeral. The deceased will be taken from I lendersonville to the cemetery in Pegram this morning in the back of a tractor-trailer driven by a family friend.

"I actually think he'd be tickled pink that we're doing it this way because he loves trucks," said Louisa Pazienza-McMillan of I lighlands, N.L, daughter of the fiancee of Carl Frederick Thompsoa Thompson, 51, of I lendersonville, an offshore oil rigger, died Sunday while on a trip to Franklin, Ky. I le served in Vietnam with die Marine Corps. Worried about the weather and the need to go forward with funeral arrangements while out-of-town family members are here, Thompson's brother, Morris W. Thompson, of Williamsport, Pa, contacted a friend who is a trucker, Pazienza-McMillan said The casket will ride in the trailer of the 18-wheeler, she said, while other family members follow from Phillips-Kobiason Funeral Home in 1 lendersonville in four-wheel-drive vehicles. r'i Of Some with cell phones can't get connected due to volume of calls By JEANNE A.

NAUJECK Stuff Writtr Cellular phone networks were so jammed during yesterday's snowstorm that some Middle Tenness-eans couldn't place calls for part of the day, particularly in the morning. Users reported delays in call connections, loss of signals and total inability to place calls on their cell phones. Major providers said the sporadic service wasn't directly retoted to the weather but resulted from predictable spikes in network usage. "Snow doesn't impact the technology that lets the call get through because it's radio waves," Wireless spokesman Alexa Kaufman said. "It might impact call quality but not enough to notice.

But we always see a surge in calling in bad weather conditions. People call to let people know they're coming to work, they're turning around and going home, they're making arrangements with babv sitters." Also, commuters stuck in drive-time backups were probably doing work on the road, said Tom Matthews, regional spokesman for Sprint PCS. "People hit a traffic jam and whip out the phone figuring they can get in a couple of calls," he said. "It's the number of callers hitting the tower at any given time. In any network a short-term bottleneck can occur.

Matthews said that when bad weather hits, Sprint asks customers to limit conversational calls of the "Hey, are you stuck on 1-40 too? How's the weather emergency calls can go through. It like milk and bread in a snowstorm you don't have to make a run on the store," he said. Jeanne A. Naujeck can be reached at 259-8076 or at OAMrw dii Ann ota re traffic on Interstate 65 just north of Nashville for more than five hours. Traffic was backed up into Kentucky.

This is a national-type emergency," Poth said. "My wife is sitting here and has to find a bathroom, and there's no way you can get to one in any directioa She's in excruciating paia Up and down the line of cars, there's all kinds of cases of people wetting themselves and doing all kinds of other things. Certainly, the governor should be told about this." Metro's Public Works Department began applying saltwater to the roadways Wednesday during the day and into the evening hours. That helped for a while," said spokeswoman Gwen Hopkias. "But the snow fell faster than anyone could respond to it." The traffic nightmares were not helped by the fact that many salt trucks were stuck in traffic along with everybody else, Hopkins said, keeping them from doing what they needed to do.

"Now if we can get traffic off the roads, we'll be salting throughout the night," she said yesterday aftemooa Because of the many accidents, ambulances in Metro were in short supply. Some patients who needed critical medical attention waited in traffic for extended periods of time. Around 10 ara, police began responding only to accidents in which people were hurt "Any time we have a weather change like we're having this morning, it takes us a bit longer to respond," said Nashville Fire Department spokesman Charles Shannoa "It takes us longer to get people to the hospital and to get those ambulances back out in service. We will answer all of those calls; it may take us a little bit longer than normal" There had not been any weather-related fatalities as of last night, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency reported. After the snow hit Murfreesboro, these MTSU Juniors from Malaysia built their first snowman.

Karen Soh, left, Glin Ng and Florence Fong found the experience to be "cool, fun and pretty." Metro Public Works had 30 snow vehicles salt trucks with snow plows on the front that were out since the first flakes started to fall Each salt truck carries about 8 tons of salt, I lopkias said. "After we get the roads cleared, we will run our mega-plows," she said The five mega-plows are larger than plows and cannot be used until the snarl of traffic is relieved. "We brought in every available crew," she said. "We're working them around the clock." In Middle Tennessee, TDOT had 222 salt trucks and 144 saltwater trucks working. They were equipped with 50,000 tons of salt and 502,000 gallons of saltwater.

Staff Writer Sheila Burke contributed to this story. Amid the snow and the gridlock were many miserable people: cold, tired, frustrated and, in many cases, hungry. The Steak-Out restaurant on Uriley Parkway sent out a group of three to four employees with hamburgers and cheeseburgers to the highway median to sell to drivers stuck in traffic. -ELLEN MARGULIES. IAN Df MSKY, CARRIE FERGUSON.

JENNIFER PEEBLES, 'JAIL KERR, IVAN AHONIN. GEORGE ZtPP Bee: Vanderbilt threatened after dorm name changed obligation to disclose or mnrwt tn rMimA miiit, i i- obligation to disclose or report to retired service Powcrball 4-17-30-42-44 15 military member. this distastfull event As we fear the public any of its decision-mak math professor at Lotto South 10-12-18-234447 No tickets matched all six numbers In Wednesday's night Powerball and Lotto South drawings, bringing tomorrow's Jackpots to an estimated $57 million and $1 7 million, respectively. After the UDC responded last week, Vanderbilt offered a much longer argument in support of its position, claiming that the lawsuit "concerns matters of little legitimate public interest (the changing of the name of a dormitory on a private university's campus)." "First of all, it should be clear that there Ls no 'public right to know regarding factual information relevant to this case," the Wednesday filing states. "Vanderbilt University is a private, not-for-profit instirutioa Despite its prominence in the Nashville community, Vanderbilt has no legal you will need it" Gore and his wife, Tipper, spoke at Vanderbilt's annual Family Re-Union conference on Oct.

2L Smith's affidavit says a VUPD detective determined that the message had come from out of state and that there were no problems during the conference. Other e-mails contain a mix of racial slurs, criticisms of Gee, a reference to the university as "Pan-derguilt" and other insults. One, from a Henry Mastoa expresses the hope that Gee will be "killed by the same worthless (racial slur) that kills Farley." Jonathan Farley, an assistant wrote in a column published in The Tennessean in November that Confederate soldiers and leaders should have been executed at the end of the Civil War. In a related matter, Vanderbilt and UDC attorneys are arguing over whether the UDC needs to depose, or interview, Farley, who will begin a visiting professorship at Massachusetts Iastitute of Technology this month. According to Smith's affidavit, two Davidson County assistant district attorneys told a VUPD detective that "there were no specific threats that warranted prosecution" in Maston's message.

ino criminal record on him could be located. VUPD continues to provide increased security for the Chancellor, (administration building) Kirkland Hall and other locations as a result of this incident." Cook could not be reached for commentyesterday. One of the e-mail messages, addressed to a Vanderbilt spokeswoman and sent by a Jean Stork on Oct. 18, contains the subject line "Removal of Confederate' from building "bad Gore address "Shame on you all," the message reads in part. "We only hope you have plenty of security around for ing processes.

The attached police report, listing Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon Gee as the victim, says Gee returned a call from Wallace Earl Cook of 1437 Nesbitt Drive in Madison on Jaa 7. "After Gee explained the reason for the name change, subject Cook stated that he was through talking and was going to come over to Vanderbilt to cut Gee's heart out," says the report, filed later that day. Charles V. Smith, Vanderbilt's assistant chief of police, says in the affidavit that "VUPD investigated Cook and learned that he is a i Get state-by-state lottery results at tSfffl6MMn.00n! 0.