DC: 17-28 inches of snow. I've lived here for almost 40 years, and ...

[11 Bravo]

I can promise you that we will never under-react when sheer panic is an option. The first snowflake is predicted to fall in approximately 14 hours, yet school has already been cancelled. Hell, I'm a teacher, and that seems to be a little bit premature.

[MineralMan]

1. Day off. What's not to like?

[virgogal]

2. Gives parents time to make child-care arrangements.

[gateley]

3. I lived in NC and once, after a day of moderate snow, they predicted more, every business

shut down, there was gridlock for over TEN HOURS with people panicking to get home, and there was nary a flake!

[dsc]

23. I live here now

and we got about 3 inches of snow on Friday evening and Saturday morning. We had no school on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday and we had a one hour delay today. Nothing short of insane.

[gateley]

25. I'm from Seattle and I thought WE came to a screeching halt when it snowed --

The incident I'm thinking of was maybe about 5 or so years ago? I lived in Clayton and I went home at the end of the day since I only lived about 3 minutes from work (figuring I could walk if it got bad). No snow. I turned on the local 11;00 news that night and was shocked to see they were showing people still jamming the roads all over the place. Kids couldn't get picked up at school because their parents were stuck god-knows-where. It was surreal!

I've been watching you the last little while. You did get pretty hammered for a couple of days, didn't you?

Keeping warm?

[dsc]

34. we did and yeah I am keeping warm

we finally had a whole day of school today but it is wet, miserable, and cold.

[11 Bravo]

4. Reccing this was kind of silly, but unreccing it to balance things out shows me ...

that there is at least one frustrated middle school hall monitor posting this evening.

[Neurotica]

5. My kids are thrilled about this, and I think the teachers that live further west

are probably pretty happy as well.

To your point, I do have to say as a midwesterner that when I moved to DC in the early '90s I was shocked to see cars abandoned during a snowstorm just because people couldn't deal with driving in the snow!

[CTyankee]

6. Lived in No. VA for over 9 years, worked in DC. You get an ice storm there and it's bad.

There seems to be more real snow storms there than where I am here in CT, in New Haven on the shore line. I don't blame Virginians actually. I think it can get pretty bad there when those of us on the shoreline don't experience the same problems (altho we do get storms).

[4dsc]

7. Wish I was there...

I just love great snow amounts.. Sounds like one heck of storm headed your way..

[Neurotica]

8. You should have seen the grocery stores...

As you would expect, the milk and bread supplies were decimated.

But, it was interesting to find what other things disappear before a big storm (would make for a great sociological study, no doubt). Bacon was gone, oats were gone (big containers of the old-fashioned kind, pancake mix was gone, cake mixes were gone. I saw one young guy with a cart full of pop tarts!

[leftofcool]

10. I did. It was horrible

I bet there were at least 1000 people in my local grocery. I did get milk and some soup and some bread but lots of shelves were empty. Bottled water all gone. I am so sick on snow I could scream. 24 inches, then 6 inches and now this.

[Neurotica]

11. In 2003 (?) when we got 2 feet of snow the grocery stores didn't get restocked

for several days. I remember tramping through unplowed roads to go to the store in search of something and being somewhat surprised to see lots of empty shelves. Trucks couldn't get through and people couldn't get to work.

[leftofcool]

20. I remember that

I live right across the street from a Giant and they didn't have much. This one is going to be a duzy I am afraid. Hubby is working from home tomorrow because it will be hell getting home from Columbia Friday night.

[northzax]

24. Booze, smokes and condoms.

Ay least that's what was gone before the snopocalypse. Luckily, or unluckily, I am stuck on the left coast for this one. Wonder when Dca will reopen?

[LibertyLover]

9. I work for International Finance Corporation, part of The World

Bank Group. At 4:45 pm this afternoon we got an e-mail stating that the Bank Group would be closed tomorrow because of the snow storm. And my daughter's school has already decided to close 2 hours early tomorrow. Of course, I'll be off, so I can pick her up without any problem. I have lived in Annapolis, Maryland for 21 years, having moved down from northern New Jersey and I will never get over how DC and the surrounding counties react to snow. It's frightening.

[arcadian]

12. You commute from Annapolis to D.C.?

[leftofcool]

21. It's only about 20 minutes

on a good day. In snow and ice, a couple of hours in traffic.

[LibertyLover]

32. Yep, sure do

While it takes me longer than 20 minutes, it's not too bad. I drive 20 minutes to the New Carrollton Metro station and then take metro to Foggy Bottom station. That takes about 35 minutes. All in all it takes me about an hour 20 minutes one way.

[Kingofalldems]

13. I am prepared to stand in my driveway and shovel

just to keep up with the huge amounts expected. Went to the grocery store and some departments were totally cleaned out.

[Neurotica]

15. I had the same thought but the problem is that the heaviest snow is supposed

to fall throughout Friday night, all night...

[leftofcool]

22. Yep, won't Saturday be a bitch of a day?

Last time it took us 3 hours to dig out. Couldn't even see our little Toyota.

[Faygo Kid]

14. It's not premature, and I'm from Michigan and live here now. It's Snowmageddon.

Good grief, every computer model nails it as an Historic Storm. Quit being such an old fart (me, too). This one, it's right to shut down the schools. I'm not a teacher, I work in downtown DC - and they told us to stay home tomorrow from work. Which I will do.

It's not premature. This ain't 1967, and they ain't guessing at this point. Lay in the supplies (and especially the wine).

[Veruca Salt]

17. !!!

You have just made my night with coining the term "Snowmageddon"; I shall remember and put that one to use! :rofl:

[Faygo Kid]

18. Washington Post endorsed it. Our December storm was Snowpocalypse.

Pretty clever, I would say: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/

[Veruca Salt]

36. LOVE IT!

Best storm names ever!

It sounds like one crazy storm that's hitting you guys, hopefully everyone down there knows how to shovel (if they don't have plow/snowblower access) that kind of snowfall or they have some sort of tips on the local news. An amount like that definitely calls for shoveling every few hours otherwise it's back breaking work if attempting to shovel out all in one go.

Good luck and stay warm! I'm sure it will look lovely down there after the roads and sidewalks are cleared. Hopefully we'll see some pics of DC in the snow! :)

[Veruca Salt]

16. That's it? Up in my neck of the woods we call that 'ah dusting'

;)

Though I have to say so far the winter has been exceedingly kind to us this year whilst you guys are getting hit hard... I'm probably speaking too soon though and now that I said something I've jinxed it and we'll get hammered.

[FLDCVADem]

19. I'm actually glad they closed the schools already

Three or four years ago, they predicted a dusting, and by the time they figured out it would be much worse, it was noon. The kids were released mid-day, and it took almost three hours to get home.

[gkhouston]

31. About a decade ago, they predicted a half-inch and got 10. What a mess that was. n/t

[Dappleganger]

26. Nice, does everybody with an SUV or truck still run out into the snow

on the highway to see how far they can go? We always used to laugh at all those SUV's in the ditches along the road because people have no clue how to drive on snow and ice.

[Neurotica]

27. Yes, and at way higher-than-recommended speeds

It always amazes me to see people flying down roads covered with snow and ice. That's why I stay home during snowstorms like this. My husband, on the other hand, likes nothing better than to run errands in the middle of a snowstorm. He's a Chicago native and he thinks he can deal with all the crazies on the roads. I just cross my fingers that he gets back home safely...

[AspenRose]

28. We had to cancel my son's birthday party

He turns 5 tomorrow :-(

The party was scheduled for Saturday - doubt anyone would be able to get outdoors to come, and wouldn't recommend them taking the risk anyhow.

He has been very gracious about it - I'm so proud of him. We're going to try and make it up to him next week.

And YES the stores were INSANE today.

My doctor's office cancelled my appointment set for tomorrow as well, so they could let their staff go home early.

[Neurotica]

29. Sorry to hear about having to cancel your son's party-maybe you can do some

fun family things instead on Saturday (sledding extravaganza with cocoa afterwards?)

[Jennicut]

30. Aww, poor guy. My girls have birthdays in the summer, June and July.

They will be turning 5 and 6. My birthday is Dec 20th so I got snowed out once in awhile too.

[mudplanet]

33. Gee, I wish we'd get that here.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. Hmm, 28" of snow might even shut Minneapolis down

There was one time in the mid 1960s when we lived in what was then the farthest-west suburb of Minneapolis (I called it "the last suburb before Seattle"). The town government foolishly parked the snow plows in an open field. We were off school for two days (a Thursday and Friday) because the snow plows were buried under immense drifts and no one could even find them.