Snowed in ... with no plows in sight
By: Brian Hughes
Examiner Staff Writer
February 9, 2010
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| A woman digs her car out in Arlington on Sunday. Forecasters predict an additional 10 to 20 inches of snow Tuesday night into Wednesday. (Andrew Harnik/Examiner) |
Washington-area residents, many confined to snow-induced house arrest, spent Monday battling cabin fever — often without the slightest notion of when snowplows would arrive to curtail their confinement. Others just hoped to return to their homes.
Though much of the District and its main roadways began to show life again Monday, some suburbanites nestled off side streets haven't seen much change since the snow stopped Saturday.
"There isn't any sign of the roads except for what we shoveled," said East Montgomery Village's Jennifer Stisher. "I have no idea when the plows are going to show up."
Still, Stisher called herself lucky because she was able to work from home. With the National Weather Service predicting another 10 to 20 inches of snow beginning Tuesday, she anticipated staying home all week.
Other Montgomery County residents, like Michael Binder of Silver Spring, had no trouble heeding the advice of transportation officials to stay off the roads.
"I could see clear roads from my house," he said. "I just couldn't get to them."
Abdullah Mohmand, 19, spent part of the afternoon trying to shoulder a friend's car out of the middle of one of Kalorama's snow-stacked streets in Northwest Washington.
"This is the first time in my life I've seen snow like this," said Mohmand, a native of Afghanistan. "We don't have this where I come from."
The American Red Cross-operated shelter at Rockville's Richard Montgomery High School housed 50 people, many of whom were trapped in their homes, retrieved by authorities using anything they could muster, from four-by-fours to an Army humvee.
Amy Dauphin, 80, of Silver Spring, didn't think she would make it out alive.
Her initial calls to police weren't returned, prompting her to think, "I'm going to die. I'm going to freeze to death." Thanks to a phone call from her daughter-in-law, a Wheaton rescue team arrived and took her to the shelter.
She now sleeps on one of dozens of cots lining the high school's gym, where she's befriended fellow homesick, snow-weary residents, now part of a group she dubs the "Three Musketeers."
The snow wasn't so awful for everyone.
A group of about 20 people sledding near Rock Creek Park in Adams Morgan Monday enjoyed the aftermath of the weekend's blizzard, careening down the hill on rubber tubes, wooden sleds, and even cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic bags.
"I've got a yoga mat for a sled," said 25-year-old Sara Knechtel. "So I'm going to make an attempt, we'll see how it works."
Fairfax County officials instructed residents to contact the Virginia Department of Transportation -- responsible for clearing county roads -- if their streets weren't plowed by Wednesday.
As of Monday afternoon, Fairfax's Ralph Yeatts -- and his dozen Jennichelle Court neighbors -- were still waiting.
"We're stuck," he said. "Everyone in our cul-de-sac is out with a shovel, but it won't do any good -- we can't get down the street until [snow plows] get here."
Markham Heid contributed to this report.
