Snow chaos continues on US coast

» By kashmeer | the 02-08-2010 at 14:39 | 25 views (12 unique) | 1 comment | Report post!

wow look at this freak weather and climate change going on- hope were not heading for another ICE age! Transport links in Washington DC and nearby states have been severely disrupted and hundreds of thousands of people are still without power.

Federal government offices and most schools are shut after the authorities advised people to stay indoors.

Weather forecasts are warning of fresh blizzards due on Tuesday.

The storm has disrupted transport from West Virginia to southern New Jersey.

US Snow: Your pictures
Some parts of Washington experienced up to 32in (81cm) of snow, one of the heaviest snowfalls in decades.

A record 3ft (91cm) of snow fell in Maryland.

Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland have declared emergencies, allowing them to mobilise the National Guard to help cope with the wintry onslaught.

Electricity was cut to at least 300,000 homes as the snow felled trees, and cut power lines across the region. Emergency workers are struggling to restore power.

Another 250,000 customers were hit by blackouts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the New York Times reported.

MARDELL'S AMERICA

The snow of course is not anyone's fault, but the power cuts, or outages, as Americans call them, most certainly are

Mark Mardell

Read Mark's thoughts in full
Pepco electric company said its workers were scrambling to restore power, but warned it could be a few days before everyone's supply was restored.

"We have a lot of scattered outages and the road conditions are not really working with us," spokesman Andre Francis told AFP news agency.

'Snowmageddon'

The massive storm brought the nation's capital to a virtual standstill.

All flights were cancelled out of Washington's national airport, along with most flights out of Dulles International in Virginia.

The 18in (46cm) recorded at Reagan National Airport was the fourth-highest snow total for the city. At Dulles Airport, outside Washington, the record was shattered with 32in (81cm).

WASHINGTON SNOWSTORMS

More than 1ft (12in, 30.5cm) of snow has fallen only 14 times since 1870
Heaviest on record is 28in (71cm) in January 1922
Worst snowfall is believed to have hit in 1772, before records began, with as much as 3ft

In pictures: Snow chaos
Even President Barack Obama fell victim to "snowmageddon", as locals - including the president - have dubbed it.

A tree limb snapped and fell on to a vehicle in Mr Obama's motorcade, but no-one was injured.

All across the region, hundreds of car accidents were reported, but only two fatalities - a father and son who died while helping another motorist in Virginia.

US national rail service Amtrak cancelled a number of trains between New York and Washington, and also between Washington and some southern destinations.

Snowball fight

The latest storm comes less than two months after a December storm dumped more than 16in (41cm) of snow in Washington.

The Washington Metro was operating only on underground lines, and bus services were cancelled.

The usually traffic-heavy roads of the capital were deserted, and the city's famous sites and monuments were covered with snow.

Debi Adkins, who lives just outside the city of Baltimore, told the BBC: "I'm not going anywhere - I couldn't if I wanted to. You just can't get your cars out. The front door of the building I live in is closed shut, so I just can't get out."

Some sightseers ventured out in thigh-deep snow in the National Mall park, or went cross-country skiing down empty boulevards.

Others took part in a huge snowball fight at Washington's DuPont Circle, organised via Facebook and Twitter.