Washington DC and much of the US East Coast were on Friday bracing for what has been billed as a possibly historic snowstorm that could paralyse life across a number of States, affecting over 75 million people.
The monster blizzard, set to barrel towards the national capital by Friday afternoon and continue till early hours of Sunday, is projected to dump more than two feet of snow in the Washington region, with relatively lower amounts in other cities including New York and Philadelphia.
“Heavy snow and blowing snow will cause dangerous conditions and will be a threat to life and property,” the National Weather Service warned.
Five States Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Tennessee – and the District of Columbia have declared a state of emergency, even as authorities warned of the possibility of power outages and roof collapses and mobilized thousands of salt trucks and plows to treat the road network.
About 5,000 flights have already been cancelled and the Washington Metro also took the unusual step of shutting down the network, beginning late Friday till Monday morning – said to be the longest-ever closure of the city’s rail system. The federal government was
It remains to be seen if Washington sees more snow than the 28 inches dumped during its worst-ever winter storm back in January 1922. The ‘Snowmageddon’ of February 2010 saw nearly 18 inches of snow.
After drawing flak for their poor response to the season’s first snowfall on Wednesday, the DC, Virginia and Maryland authorities were working overtime to get their act together. Failure to chemically-treat the roads resulted in hundreds of accidents due to skidding. President Barack Obama’s motorcade, too, was caught up in the traffic gridlock that stretched for hours.
Mayor Muriel Bowser apologized for DC’s “inadequate” response on Wednesday night and promised that the city system will do its utmost to get it right as it deals with the colossal challenge over the weekend.
In New York, which is expected to see 6 to 12 inches of snow, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city was in a state of preparedness with massive mobilization of men and material.