The charms of winter were wearing thin on Washingtonians as the snow continued its slow torturing of power lines, roads, railroad tracks and life in general.
Mother Nature dropped 5-13 inches of snow on the region overnight, the National Weather Service reported, and another six to 12 inches were predicted through Thursday.
For area residents, it was truly a perfect storm: The weather showed no signs of letting up and public agencies showed few signs of stepping up.
“We’ve ordered our crews to take shelter in their vehicles until it’s safe again,” Pepco spokesman Bob Dobkin said.
Plows all over the region were idling by the sides of roads as officials waited through the whiteout. Streets all over the city and suburbs became windswept wastelands and journalists seeking human contact for interviews kept running into — other journalists.
Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett said officials were desperately cobbling together rescue and street vehicles for the big dig out. The county ordinarily has about 400 pieces of equipment on the roads. Right now, there are 800.
It’s still not enough, Leggett said.
“We’ve been out trying to find contractors,” he said. “The problem now is, you can’t get them.”
The U.S. Postal Service waived the white flag, canceling mail pickup and delivery on Wednesday. It was the second time in a week that mail service had been suspended — and the first time in 30 years that the post office had been beaten twice in a week.
“These storms have just been very unusual,” Postal Service spokeswoman Deborah Yackley said.
The blizzard’s mid-week second act added insult to injury, disrupting commerce and community affairs. The sticker shock may not be felt for months as state and local governments, already hard pressed for cash, were looking at staggering overtime and equipment bills from the February “snowmaggedon.”
“My position is, we’re going to spend what’s necessary,” Leggett said.
A D.C. city hall source said the District was $3 million over its snow-clearing budget even before a single flake had fallen last week; Mayor Adrian Fenty was also warned after December’s storm that the city’s equipment was falling apart.
Local power companies, having just restored power to tens of thousands of people from the previous weekend, were bracing for a brand new round of outages.
“They’re just working around the clock,” Dobkin said.
All over the Washington region, there were signs of cabin fever: A homicide in Prince George’s County, a barricade in D.C.’s Petworth neighborhood, Mayor Adrian Fenty peevishly warning a reporter not to tread “on my mens rea.”
In Rockville, 76-year-old Peggy Sawyer was trying to make the best of the disaster.
“You just have to relax with it,” she said. “There’s nothing anybody can do.”
