Xueyu Zeng, of Towson, Md., sweeps snow from a walkway in Towson, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016, after a snow fell the night before.. The northern mid-Atlantic region, including Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia, is preparing for a weekend snowstorm that is now forecast to reach blizzard conditions. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)
Republished January 21, 2016 - 1:15 PM
Original Publication Date January 21, 2016 - 10:15 AM
WASHNGTON, - America's capital just got knocked out by the meteorological equivalent of a 98-pound weakling.
Now it's about to go toe-to-toe with a hulking heavyweight of a snowstorm.
Bracing for a historic pounding, winter-wary Washington, D.C., has already declared a homeland-security event. Shelves are being emptied at chaotic grocery stores. Schools and offices are shutting pre-emptively, even though the storm probably won't hit before Friday afternoon.
Mayor Muriel Bowser warned citizens to prepare for knee-deep snow — a potential 50-centimetre clobbering just a day after the quasi-southern city was paralyzed by snowfall that measured a twentieth of that.
A Washington Post reporter described a five hour, 30-minute commute home on Wednesday. Even President Barack Obama's motorcade got stuck in traffic — with its passengers witnessing several accidents.
The mayor accepted blame for the problems, saying she didn't sufficiently deploy the city's 14 new snow dump-trucks, new Ford 550s and 39,000 tonnes of road salt to deal with the two-centimetre sprinkling.
"We are very sorry for the inadequate response," she told a news conference Thursday, which was originally scheduled to share news about the impending storm but became a mea culpa for the previous day's dusting.
"We should have been out earlier, with more resources. ... For that, we are very sorry."
The city usually gets a couple of snowstorms a year — that is when the flakes doesn't instantly melt upon contact with the ground.
Yet its perennial struggles with winter have perplexed new arrivals for years.
That includes the first family. In his first week as president, Barack Obama expressed amazement at how quickly his daughters' new school declared a snow day. In this town, they don't just shut schools and offices when it snows. They shut them down when it might snow.
"When it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things," Obama said in 2009.
Add winter dysfunction to immigration reform, gun laws and polarized politics on the list of things that didn't change in Washington under Obama's presidency.
Driving from the airport to the White House on Wednesday, vans in the presidential motorcade slipped and skidded on the icy roads, even bouncing off curbs. After an hour of patiently stopping at lights and gingerly navigating traffic, the White House press pool reported the motorcade resorted to more aggressive use of sirens to advance.
A northern-trained motorist will frequently feel frustrated watching Washington drivers break every rule of driving in snow: the streets are a fish-tailing mess of braking, accelerating, lane-changing and spinning wheels when stuck.
Manitoba native Stephanie Craig said the slightest snowfall can prompt a chain-reaction leading to accidents, delays, empty gas tanks and stranded kids — so she understands why schools close.
"They're not prepared to drive in it," said the longtime Washington resident. "They don't have snow tires. And one little problem becomes a big problem.
"You have people that are from all over the place that have moved here. And some of those places don't have snow on a regular basis."
It's no laughing matter.
A report last year by University of Georgia researchers found winter-related auto accidents kill an average of 842 people a year in the United States, more than the combined toll of lightning strikes, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods.
As for what's next, the mayor said she's lived in Washington all her life and has never seen a forecast like this.
It could surpass the 2010 storm that left thousands without power and the 1996 one that shut down the federal government for days. The good news is that it likely won't rival the tragic, worst storm on record.
In 1922, the city received 71 centimetres of snow, which collapsed a theatre roof and killed 98 people.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2016