Northern Virginia —
I lived in the Virginia suburbs and worked in downtown Washington, D.C., for fifteen years and no one was ever quicker to laugh at the mass hysteria and weather wimpiness that frequents this area.
But today is not that day. This is a serious storm with as much as two-feet of snow already on the ground. A hangar roof at Dulles has collapsed. Power is out for tens of thousands. Neighborhood streets are impassable.
This area simply does not have the equipment to move that much snow. You can’t just plow (at least not at airports and on dense city streets). You also have to truck the snow away. Having the capacity to handle a 100-year blizzard would not be reasonable use of ever tighter funds (and like children we Americans all want less “government,” and lower taxes, and yet can’t understand when we have fewer services).
Yes, the snow will melt and the world will return to whatever normal is. But not soon.
I’m so nervous about where the plows will eventually put the snow on our street. Before this storm, we still had snow at the end of our driveway from the December storm. If they push all the street’s snow to the end of our driveway again, we won’t be able to get out until April!
Here’s the view in Baltimore Ken.
I grew up in Northern Virginia (Falls Church/Arlington). The whole DC area freaks out when they get 3 inches of snow; I don’t know how they’ll survive 3 feet.
Beth in Taos