and the mid-Atlantic states in a smothering canvass of snow Saturday,
grounding planes and triggering widespread power outages as people
across the region turned to skis and sleds to traverse icy roads.
The storm proved a major disruption, with above-ground subways and buses in the
area shutting down and stores closing en masse in the face of a storm
destined to go down as one of the major snowfalls in the area’s history.
As of late afternoon Saturday, a total of 32.4 inches was recorded at
That two-day accumulation beat the previous record, compiled during the blizzard of
Hundreds of thousands of homes in
Trees toppled under the snow’s weight, blocking
roadways. Snowplows worked overtime to keep the streets cleared from a
snowfall that began Friday and wasn’t scheduled to end until Saturday
night.
Flights were cancelled at
An ambulance in the motorcade skidded into an SUV in the motorcade ambulance hit an SUV in the motorcade before
Addressing the
“He’s on his way,” Obama said. “He’s still shoveling.”
While Obama normally portrays himself as a hardy
Chicagoan accustomed to bad weather, even he seemed impressed by the
storm’s ferocity. He called the blizzard: “Snowmaggedon.”
The storm created some other-worldly moments in the
area, with people moving up and down side streets on cross country skis
and solitary pedestrians trudging along the middle of major roadway
clutching bags of groceries purchased in the few convenience stores
that remained open.
Describing the scene at the grocery store on Friday, before the storm hit,
“No milk, no meat, no chicken, no pickles,” she said, as she and her two young children wrestled in the snow in
Another
woman interviewed outside her home Saturday had wrapped her small dog
in a sweater and taken him — reluctantly — outside for a walk. After
disappearing in a foot of snow, the dog “gave me a look like, ‘Are you
crazy?’, she said.
Rather than staying inside and cleaning her house,
“We’re not used to this snow in D.C.,” she said.
A few blocks away a tree weighted down with snow had
snapped at the base and fallen across a side street, creating an
impassable barrier.
The blizzard follows a storm on
Assessing the damage, some residents seemed stunned.
Just north of the Beltway in
“This is crazy,” said Steinberg. “Resisting
precipitation is pretty much what we expect an awning to do; the fact
that it couldn’t stand up to the weight of the snow demonstrates that
the manufacturers never anticipated anything of this magnitude.”
On
a vital north-south artery that spans much of the District, people
outnumbered cars by four to one, although there were just sprinklings
of both.
With sidewalks impassible, people walked up and down
the middle of the street. The cars that attempted to make it over a
large hill that rises up along
In their place, snowboarders and even skiers traveled down the hill.
The snow appeared to be more than two feet deep,
with drifts piled as high as four feet. And as of late Saturday
morning, the snow was still dropping relentlessly, swirling in the
wind. Visibility was a limited to a few blocks. And a new concern was
developing: a layer of ice forming beneath the snow.
Near an entrance to the park, a large tree branch
had toppled, snapping a light pole and leaving it listing at a
45-degree angle.
A major commercial strip, the U Street Corridor, appeared shut down.
And, in the nation’s capital, it had come to this: A sign at the local
—
(c) 2010, Tribune Co.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
