By DAVID DISHNEAU
Associated Press
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) - After pummeling the nation's
midsection with heavy snow, a late-winter storm made its way Wednesday
to the nation's capital, where residents braced for the possibility of
power outages.
Officials said outages were the biggest potential
problem from the storm, which was expected to dump 5 to 11 inches of
snow in Washington and Baltimore by Wednesday night. Minor tidal
flooding was possible along the Delaware coast, the western shore of the
Chesapeake Bay and the lower Potomac River, the National Weather
Service said.
Already, the storm has been dubbed a "snowquester."
The nickname is a play on the D.C. wonk jargon used to describe the $85
billion that must be cut from federal budgets over the next six months
after President Barack Obama and lawmakers failed to reach a deal to
reduce the national deficit.
Maryland Emergency Management Agency spokesman Ed
McDonough reported no major incidents as of Wednesday morning. There
were about 600 power outages statewide as the conditions were worsening
in parts of Maryland.
The State Highway Administration said it expected
the snow to intensify during the day, adding to accumulations the agency
measured Wednesday morning at about 7 inches in Keysers Ridge in the
western Maryland mountains and 2 to 3 inches in central Maryland.
"We're urging folks not to travel today and to
leave the driving to our professional snow plow drivers," highway agency
spokeswoman Lora Rakowski said.
Areas north and west of Washington and Baltimore
had been seeing snow since about 3 a.m. The metropolitan region and
communities to the south and east had a wet, wintry mix of
precipitation.
As the storm closed in, the federal government said
its offices in the Washington, D.C., area would be closed Wednesday.
Many major school systems around Washington and Baltimore announced
pre-emptive closures as well.
By early Wednesday, wet snow was falling in the
Washington area. It was accumulating on the grass in some areas, but not
on the streets as temperatures hovered above freezing. The worst of the
storm was expected to arrive by midday.
Washington resident Sheri Sable, out walking her
two dogs in light rain early Wednesday, said her office was closed
because of the storm. She said the nation's capital gets spooked by
snow; even the dog park she frequents had failed to open at 7 a.m.
"They just say that it might snow and the whole city shuts down," she said.
The storm brought around 10 inches of snow to
weather-hardened Chicago by late Tuesday, when snow was also starting to
come down in parts of Virginia. Schools were closed in Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Illinois, and more than 1,100 flights were cancelled at
Chicago's two major airports, prompting delays and closures at others.
Airlines along the storm's projected path cut
flights too, including hundreds more Wednesday at Dulles and Reagan
National airports in the Washington area, according to FlightAware.com.
While there were no initial reports of major
accidents in the Chicago area, a semi-trailer slid off a snow-covered
interstate in western Wisconsin, killing one person. The search for a
second person, believed to be a passenger, was suspended overnight.
Still recovering from Superstorm Sandy, the Jersey
Shore was preparing for another possible hit Wednesday and Thursday. The
storm should bring rain and snow, but one of the biggest problems could
be flooding in areas where dunes were washed away and many damaged
homes still sit open and exposed. Those areas could get 2 to 4 inches of
snow, with Monmouth and some inland counties possibly getting as much
as 6 inches. A coastal flood warning was in effect until Thursday
morning from Sandy Hook to Cape Cod.
An upper-level, low-pressure system coming in from
the northwest and a surface low sweeping up from Kentucky were expected
to converge along the Virginia-West Virginia line, bringing heavy
precipitation, cold temperatures and winds gusting up to 35 mph.
"Whenever you're talking about that much heavy, wet
snow and those winds of 20-30 mph with some higher gusts, there's a
concern for numerous power outages," said National Weather Service
meteorologist Jared Klein in Sterling, Va.
Both Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and Pepco in the Washington area said they would have extra line crews available.
The Maryland State Highway Administration
pre-positioned tow trucks at rest stops and park-and-ride lots, and told
its tree-trimmers to get ready.
"We certainly anticipate some signal outages. We
certainly anticipate some trees down, which can cause power outages,"
spokesman David Buck said.
The closure of many schools and offices was
expected to alleviate snarled traffic in the District of Columbia. The
Metro transit system was operating normal train service but said some
bus routes would be suspended. Subway workers were focused on clearing
snow from tracks, platforms and parking lots.
The Maryland Transit Administration was monitoring overhead power lines for snow and ice accumulation.
In Virginia, the storm was expected to dip along
the coast and dump moisture-laden snow inland totaling a foot in the
Blue Ridge Mountains and up to 21 inches in higher elevations.
Dominion Virginia Power had also alerted
out-of-state utilities it might require assistance if the storm lived up
to its billing.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell directed executive
branch agencies to allow eligible nonessential employees to work
remotely or to "be generous" in approving leave requests for workers who
live in regions under a storm watch or warning.
The state's emergency operations center was to open
Wednesday morning, and state transportation officials advised motorists
to avoid travel at the height of the storm.
The Baltimore-Washington area's last snowstorm
struck Jan. 26, 2011. It hit Washington during the evening rush hour,
causing some motorists to be stuck in traffic nearly overnight. It
dropped 5 inches on Washington and 7.8 inches on Baltimore, knocked out
power to about 320,000 homes and contributed to six deaths.
Since then, the federal government has changed its
bad-weather policies to allow workers to leave their offices sooner or
to work from home if major storms are expected.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which sets
leave policies for 300,000 federal workers, said non-emergency
employees of the federal government would be granted excused absences
for Wednesday. The agency was criticized after the 2011 storm for
waiting too long to tell workers to go home, leading to gridlock.
___
Associated Press writers Alex Dominguez in
Baltimore, Jessica Gresko and Ben Nuckols in Washington, Wayne Parry in
Long Beach Township, N.J., Steve Szkotak in Richmond, Va., Don Babwin
and Jason Keyser in Chicago, Kevin Wang in Madison, Wis., Amy Forliti in
St. Paul, Minn., and Barbara Rodriguez in Des Moines, Iowa contributed
to this report.
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