Residents across the region were asked to stay away from work on Monday if possible as crews rush to clear the aftermath of the weekend’s “Snowmageddon” from streets and rails before another storm dumps more snow Tuesday.
“Unless you have to go, don’t go out,” said John Townsend, a spokesman for the AAA Mid-Atlantic auto club. “The whole region is digging itself out, and it’s going to be days before the thousands of miles of secondary roads are plowed.”
The weekend storm hit near-record snowfalls, with as much as 40 inches falling in Colesville, Md., just north of the Capital Beltway. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport clocked in its highest two-day snowfall ever, but only the second-highest was recorded at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
And overall the storm was only the fourth-highest two-day snowfall in Washington since 1871, according to the National Weather Service, in part because Reagan National Airport is now used as the official measurement spot.
1. Knickerbocker storm, Jan. 17 and 18, 1922: 26.0 inches
2. Feb. 12 and 13, 1899: 19.0 inches
3. Feb. 18 and 19. 1979: 18.7 inches
4. Snowmagedon, Feb. 5 and 6, 2010: 17.8 inches recorded at Reagan National Airport
Along with the sheer volume of snow — more than 32 inches at Washington Dulles International Airport — the storm deposited wet, heavy underlayers that packed down into hard, icy strata that defied road crews’ best efforts. Winds then caused the top layers to drift, covering some already cleared areas. The little that melted was expected to refreeze overnight.
The ice and drifting snow also afflict Metro, which on Sunday kept its buses and disability access vehicles off the roads and its aboveground Metrorail stations closed for a second day. It was not clear Sunday afternoon when regular service could resume, even on the rail system.
“It’s slow-going, just like the roads,” Metro spokewoman Cathy Asato said. “It’s going to be a long recovery period for everybody.”
Hundreds of e-mails and calls had come into Virginia officials by Sunday from residents asking when their streets would be plowed, but the state was focused on clearing all lanes of the interstates by Sunday, then hitting subdivisions by Tuesday afternoon’s next weather front.
“We’d like to make one pass through every subdivision in Northern Virginia before that storm begins,” said Joan Morris of the Virginia Department of Transportation. Montgomery County crews had cleared many primary and secondary streets, but neighborhood roads were not scheduled for treatment until Monday.
School systems quickly announced that classes would be canceled Monday, with some, like Montgomery County’s, already planning to stay shut Tuesday.
Local airports were slow to resume operations, as 5 inches of ice lined the runway of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Washington Dulles International Airport opened its first runway Sunday morning but offered limited flights. Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport was slated to open a runway Sunday but resume commercial flights only on Monday. Flyers were urged to call airlines before trying to make it to airports.
Meanwhile, Amtrak also had to reduce much of its service along the Mid-Atlantic on Sunday due to downed trees and power lines.
The nearly record-breaking snow had shut down the region starting Friday. It collapsed the 102-year-old Joshua’s Temple First Born Church in Northeast D.C. and stopped the U.S. Postal Service from making its Saturday deliveries. Most mail service was expected to resume Monday.
The nearly record-breaking snow had shut down the region starting Friday. It collapsed the 102-year-old Joshua’s Temple First Born Church in Northeast D.C. and stopped the U.S. Postal Service from making its Saturday deliveries. Most mail service was expected to resume Monday.
Lights, heat and televisions blinked off around the region even as sports fans got ready for the Super Bowl, with Montgomery County getting hardest hit by the outages.
More than 370,000 homes around the region lost power at the height of the storm. By Sunday afternoon, 57,000 Pepco households in D.C. and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties remained without electricity, while Dominion Virginia Power reported just 19,000 outages in Northern Virginia.
“We’re slowly but surely getting there,” Pepco spokesman Andre Francis said.
Assistance from around the East Coast was pouring in, with road equipment from Richmond and Hampton Roads slated to come dig out Northern Virginia and power crews from Delaware and the Carolinas helping out.
