As many Washington-area commuters are undoubtedly aware, rush hour is the worst possible time for a snowstorm. Drivers suffered through ungodly drives, sitting immobile for hours on slush-covered roads, navigating around cars left abandoned by their owners and crawling through intersections whose traffic lights were left black. Karen White, from Calvert County, left work in the District at 4 p.m. She never made it home. After six hours on the road, she ended up at a hotel at National Harbor just across the District line.

“It was just completely bumper-to-bumper,” she said. “Horns were flaring when we were on [Massachusetts] Avenue, but when you got out onto the highway, there was nothing anybody could do.”