Update at 4:45 PM – National Weather Service predicting 10 to 20 inches of accumulation for DC. Officially, the Winter Storm Warning for Arlington calls for 6-12 inches of snow.
Update at 2:15 PM – CWG now warns of 5-10 inches of snow and dangerously high winds.
Here’s our post on Rep. Murtha’s hospitalization, from 2/3/10:
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) is in the intensive care unit at Arlington’s Virginia Hospital Center. Murtha’s spokesperson said the 77-year-old congressman was brought to the hospital after suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. Murtha, as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, wields considerable power and influence at the Pentagon and with Arlington’s defense industry.
A team of 30 Arlington County “snow spotters” is canvassing the 376 miles of county-maintained roadways today, looking for areas in need of additional treatment.
The spotters are specially-trained employees of the Department of Environmental Services. Their observations are relayed back to county employees who map out the findings. The map then allows the snow removal crews to more quickly and easily identify problem spots.
The county says its snow removal crews are beginning to tackle neighborhood roads.
“Our crews are still working round-the-clock clearing massive amounts of snow from County-maintained roads,” Acting County Manager Barbara Donnellan said in a press release. “We are throwing everything we have into this effort, and have stabilized main roads and secondary roads throughout the County. Crews are beginning to work their way into the neighborhoods. We thank residents for their patience and understanding.”
Arlington County schools are closed Monday. The Arlington County government, including libraries and recreation centers, is also closed on Monday. Fines won’t be assessed for overdue books.
Thomas Jefferson Community Center, meanwhile, is open for use as a warming center.
Statewide, Virginia State Police responded to calls for 1,713 traffic accidents and 1,699 stranded vehicle. According to the Washington Post:
The state police’s Fairfax Division alone responded to 681 calls for service, including 435 disabled vehicles and 121 traffic crashes.
It’s amazing how a snow storm that was greeted with such dread, and which prompted calls to “shelter in place,” could actually inspire a greater sense of community. Rather than sheltering in place, many people decided to have fun together outside.
Young and old went sledding on streets and in parks. People could be seen carrying snowboards, wakeboards and cross-country skis. Dog owners were out in force. Footballs were being thrown around.
Arlington County snow crews continue to work around the clock, focusing their efforts on main roads and emergency routes. The county says crews will not reach most neighborhood roads until Monday.
Here’s a list of safety guidelines from the county’s press release.
The Clarendon snowball fight proceeded as planned this afternoon. Police, who were called to area for a report of people — shocker — drinking and throwing snowballs, did not interfere with the informal gathering.
Attendance was modest: about two dozen people showed up for the hastily-organized event. Half the crowd lined up on one side of the tiny park, representing points south of the Clarendon Metro. The combatants on the other side represented points north.
At 6:00 tonight, 59,814 Dominion customers in Northern Virginia were still without power. Thousands of those outages appear to be in Arlington County, according to an outage map.
The entire Metro system is closing at 11:00 PM tonight.
Arlington Police and Fire personnel have been busy all day responding to calls of trees down, wires down, trees and branches on wires, trees catching fire due to lines falling on them, wires and trees blocking roads, and combinations thereof. There have been at least 16 such calls in the past two hours.
In some cases first responders have been able to clear trees from the road by themselves. In cases where wires are down or branches are leaning on wires, all firefighters can do at this point is block off the area and add the incident to Dominion’s long to-do list.
