Blizzard 2010

Sunday, February 7, 2010
Well, we have about 2 1/2 feet of snow - and it was windy so there are drifts that are pretty high! A church roof collapsed, an elementary school roof collapsed and 2 hangars at Dulles airport collapsed. The major roads and the freeways seem to be pretty clear - but nobody can really get to them because the side streets are not. Our parking lot is a mess. Jason is down digging out the car right now. A shovel works so much better than a bucket, that is for sure!

It is not clear yet if I will have to go in to work tomorrow. I hope not. I just went out to take pictures and our sidewalks are not clear - it was very difficult to walk and if I do go to work, I think I'll have to take a change of clothes because it is impossible to walk out there without your pant legs getting covered in snow. Jason can work at home if the metro still is not running tomorrow.

We managed to make it through the storm with electricity - I know a lot of people in the area had a miserable night because electricity is out in many places and it is COLD. It was 12 degrees when I woke up this morning - and now it is only 19.

Our internet and cable did go out - I'm emailing this from an unsecured network I found. No worries though - we don't have cable on the TV in the bedroom so Jason will still be able to watch the superbowl later today.

I'm attaching some pictures. Just wanted to give you all an update on the situation here! Let's all hope I get a snow day tomorrow!!


Saturday, February 6, 2010
It is still really coming down! There are more guys out trying to shovel our sidewalks and it is now up to their waists. The cars are completely buried - and they have not plowed our parking lot yet, so when they do, I'm not sure how we are going to access our cars at all.

I am worried our balcony is going to collapse under all the snow on it. Two airplane hangers at Dulles airport have collapsed and there are a lot of trees down in the area.

This is so crazy! There are now 108,000 people without power - the highest number here in Montgomery County - so we are super lucky that we still have power.


As you may have heard, we are in the middle of ANOTHER blizzard! This is so crazy. This area NEVER gets this much snow. We are breaking another record and perhaps matching a record of 3 feet that was recorded by George Washington and Ben Franklin back in the 1700s.

I am SO GLAD we thought ahead and went to the store after work on Wednesday to stock up on groceries. We also bought a shovel on Wednesday. It is a good thing we did all our shopping on Wednesday because by Thursday afternoon, a shovel could not be found anywhere and people at work were telling me they had to wait in line at the grocery stores for over an hour! They showed a grocery store last night on the news and it was completely cleaned out - even all the mushrooms were gone.

At least this time the area was more prepared and we all knew this storm was coming. Jason worked from home yesterday (Friday) and all the schools and federal government closed at noon. I left work shortly after noon and it had already started snowing and the freeway was packed - it was surreal being in rush hour at noon on a Friday.

I have a feeling all schools in the area will be off on Monday as well because the snow is STILL really coming down! I took some pictures - it is hard to convey how deep the snow is. We were watching a guy out trying to clear our sidewalks (one advantage of living in a condo, someone else clears the sidewalks for you!) and he was really struggling. First of all, he couldn't find the sidewalk. Second, the snow came up to his knees and third, his snow machine seems to keep clogging up.

Just like last time, we are going to have to dig our own car out. We are not looking forward to that. We saw one of our neighbors out digging out his car a little while ago but we are going to wait until it is finished snowing. Good thing we have a shovel now!

We still have electricity (obviously, I'm sending you an email) - but there are about 70,000 people in the area who don't. We feel very fortunate to have electricity. It did go out for a short time yesterday afternoon but luckily it came back on after about half an hour. They said on the news this storm is expected to last until 10 PM tonight and we will get another 5 or 6 inches of snow - right now we are at about 18-24 inches in the area. Judging by that guy out there clearing the snow from the sidewalk, I'd say we have about 20 inches here in our area.

The metro stopped running trains above ground - only the subway is running right now and all bus service is canceled. The last Amtrak left Union Station yesterday afternoon at 3:00 and all 3 airports in the area are closed. Believe it or not, we are supposed to get more snow on Tuesday!! Who knows, maybe I'll get the whole week off of work!

We have plenty of food, water, beer, wine and toilet paper so we'll be OK even if we are stuck here for a few more days. We just thought we would drop you all a line and give you an update.