The capital of the United States wore an unusual look on a weekend morning. The entire city was literally shutdown following an unprecedented or definitely rare snowstorm that zeroed in on Washington, DC. Temperatures hovered around 27-degree Fahrenheit or minus 3-degree Celsius at 10 am Saturday morning!
Ronald Reagan national airport, one of the busiest in the country had already seen 14 inches of snow by Saturday morning. The other big airport Dulles had seen 15 inches of snow and air travel in the city has been pretty much paralyzed. The busy Metro that is used by 7,00,000 people per day had also closed operations on Saturday and Sunday – a rare move. Depending on how much snow falls on Saturday, the total amounts could break historic records. In terms of the situation outside, it was best described as "whiteout" with visibility being so poor. Most people stayed put in the comforts of their heated homes, praying that power outages remains just a threat and does not become a reality. The fear is real especially with wind gusts upto 40-50 miles per hour expected. The snow will drift and get blown around in the strong wind making it hard to move around. It is even more severe closer to the ocean shores.
Except for the emergency workers and the real die-hards, most people seemed to have stayed indoors as advised by transportation and other government authorities. The situation is expected to get a little calmer Sunday when the winds will die down and the temperatures will slowly climb.
Most people are thinking about Monday morning and their commute to work. For the children though, it is another story. They would rather see their schools closed due to snow and another day of hot chocolate and sledding in the snow!!
(Venkatesh Raghavendra is a Washington based professional. He is Chief Philanthropy Officer at American India Foundation)
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