Latest developments:
• A blizzard warning, meaning severe winter weather conditions and a stern advisory to “do not travel,” has been issued for the Washington and Baltimore metro areas from 1 p.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Sunday. The National Weather Service forecasts up to 2 feet of snow in some locations, along with sustained winds of up to 35 mph and gusts reaching 55 mph.
• A private snowplow driving in snowy, treacherous conditions struck and killed a 52-year-old man in Beltsville, Maryland, early Thursday morning, Maryland State Police Sgt. Christopher Hohenstein said. He said the man was walking along U.S. Route 1 when he was hit.
• Garth Brooks concerts Friday and Saturday at Baltimore’s Royal Farms Arena have been postponed “for the safety of all fans and all personnel involved.” This is one of dozens of cancellations of shows, classes, church services and more in the eastern half of the United States because of the winter storm.
Full story:
Communities on the East Coast braced Thursday for what could be the winter’s biggest storm yet — or could peter out, depending on how the system moves, where you are and what falls from the sky.
About 75 million people are in the storm’s path, nearly 30 million of whom are under blizzard watches or warnings. Severe weather, including tornadoes, could hit Gulf states Thursday, and some of the country’s most populous cities could see blizzard-like conditions.
That would mean winds as strong as 60 mph, coastal storm surges and flooding on top of whatever precipitation will fall. And it could be a lot.
“It’s not out of the question that some localized areas receive over 2 feet of fresh snow,” CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward said.
Washington could see the most. Starting Friday afternoon and into Saturday night, up to 30 inches could fall in the nation’s capital.
Warmup act
While such conditions are hardly unprecedented in Washington, residents’ concerns about the city’s ability to handle it could seem justified, given what happened Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.
A relatively light dusting left the metropolitan area a slippery mess along mostly untreated roads.
Virginia State Police untangled accidents by the hundreds Wednesday evening and early Thursday. An officer was hurt in one of the crashes, and a person was killed in another. And just north of Washington in Beltsville, Maryland, a man walking along U.S. Route 1 died after being hit by a snowplow in treacherous conditions, said Maryland State Police Sgt. Christopher Hohenstein.
Commutes home turned into hours-long affairs. Many drivers didn’t get home until well after midnight.
Even the commander in chief had to reckon with the wintry mix. Video shows President Barack Obama’s motorcade using hazard lights Wednesday as it made its slippery way from Joint Base Andrews to the White House. He was unable to fly on Marine One because of the weather.
Thursday morning’s drive was similarly frustrating, as some icy spots lingered and commuters left early to allow plenty of time for the ride in.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser asked everyone to stay off the roads so crews could treat them. But the damage was done nonetheless, and she later apologized for the city’s “inadequate response.”
“We believe that we did not provide adequate resources at a time when it could (have made) a difference in last evening’s commute,” she told reporters. “We should have been out with more resources.”
Hope is to be ‘overprepared,’ then ‘underwhelmed’
Still, everyone realizes that this dusting is nothing, compared with the much larger, much more powerful system on the doorstep.
States from Oklahoma east to the Atlantic Coast hunkered down Thursday as ice, snow and then some rolled through. Ward, the CNN meteorologist, warned that 1 to 2 feet of snow could fall “from eastern Kentucky across West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and into southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.”
For many, it’s still up in the air what will fall: Little Rock, Arkansas, for instance could see rain, sleet and even snow thunder overnight in addition to heavy snow, according to the weather service.
North Carolina got hit before the storm, with two deaths reported late Wednesday in crashes along snow-covered roads. The state is now awaiting even more bad weather, with up to 8 inches of snow in Asheville and significant icing in Charlotte.
Gov. Pat McCrory said that his state is doing “everything we can” to prepare and get public safety personnel ready in case the worse scenarios come true. By Thursday morning, several schools, churches and courts around North Carolina had been ordered closed Friday, according to CNN affiliate WRAL.
“Our goal with this potential winter storm … is to be overprepared and hopefully underwhelmed,” the governor said.
One thing all the states in this storm’s path can expect is heavy wind. Strong gusts, combined with accumulating snow or ice, could knock out power to many amid subfreezing temperatures — a prospect that Bowser called “my biggest concern.”
Shelves cleared around Washington metro area
Nearly 2 feet of snow fell in February 2010’s “Snowmageddon” storm, which cut power to hundreds of thousands in the region.
For this weekend’s storm to be one of historic proportions, snow accumulations in Washington would have to top 28 inches. That would exceed the calamitous “Knickerbocker Storm” of 1922, which dumped 28 inches and killed nearly 100 people when the roof of a theater by that name collapsed under the weight of the snow.
As of midday Thursday, the greater Washington metro area — from Fredericksburg, Virginia, northward, incorporating all of Maryland — was under a blizzard warning.
“Heavy snow and blowing snow will cause dangerous conditions and will be a threat to life and property,” the National Weather Service warned. “Travel is expected to be severely limited if not impossible during the height of the storm Friday night and Saturday.
Bowser, the D.C. mayor, has declared a state of emergency, closed schools for Friday and given the OK to move any vehicle that is found on a snow emergency route.
Residents in and around the nation’s capital aren’t taking any chances, either, clearing beer, bread and milk from grocery store shelves ahead of the storm.
Heaters, shovels and sleds sold at a frenzied pace at Strosniders Hardware in Silver Spring, Maryland. Ice melt chemical? Gone, too.
“They know (the storm is) coming,” manager Roy Washington told CNN affiliate WJLA. “They hear the forecast, and they want to be prepared for it.”
While Washington appears to be in the storm’s bull’s-eye, most of the Mid-Atlantic states — and a few points west — will also take a hit. There’s a lot more uncertainty for cities like Philadelphia and New York, though the latter city’s mayor has ordered some 4,800 sanitation workers charged with clearing streets to go on to 12-hour shifts Friday.
The forecast there calls for snow starting to fall overnight Friday, with 7 to 15 inches possible by the end of the weekend.
“The men and women of the Sanitation Department and all our agencies are getting ready right now,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “We’re bracing for the first big storm of the winter.”
