Doppler radar shows the snow is already falling out on the Shenandoah at Winchester, and I wonder if I should turn my day on its head? Go to the office briefly until the snow begins to come down here and at least be outside for a bit today. The heavy dump is supposed to come just before lunch, and continue through the day, tapering off in the evening as the wind backs around and temperatures plummet from the upper thirties (now) to the single digits.
That is why I came up yesterday to be in the Imperial City when things slow to a crawl, and then are buried.
Our friends at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have already thrown in the towel- the Federal Government, normally so swelled with hubris, has acknowledged that it is powerless in the face of what the earth is about to do to it.
Early surrender is positively French: in 1982 (Air Florida crash) and 1987 (Veteran’s Day Disaster) the bureaucrats decreed that the government was open despite the clear predictions of the meteorologists, only backtrack as the sleet turned to ice and the snow began to mount. They cut us all loose at the same time to choke the roads, hinder the plows and generally create mayhem.
For the first of the great snow events, I looked in horror from my residence in the Sandwich Islands at the coverage of the results of the imperious OPM decision. There was an impenetrable traffic jam attempting to leave the city via the 14th Street Bridge, and the cars were pinned in place as Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737-200, made it’s 30 second flight out of National, via the bridge and then into the Potomac.
That was a horrific morning. A jet was in the Potomac: A Park Police helicopter was the first official responder, and flew so low to reach survivors that its skids were immersed in the icy water. But the officials were not the only ones who came. Ordinary- or perhaps we should say ‘Extraordinary-’ citizens plodded through the rising snow from the bridge and the nearby Pentagon.
Passenger Priscilla Tirado miraculously survived the crash but was too weak from exposure to grab the line thrown from the chopper. Those survivors in the water were minutes away form death by hypothermia.
Extraordinary events make men rise to the occasion. Congressional Budget Office assistant Lenny Skutnik emerged from his vehicle, stripped off his coat and boots, and in short sleeves dove into the icy water and swam out to successfully pull Priscilla to shore.
Others were not so fortunate, but I will never quite look at the CBO the same way again.
The early snarl naturally frustrated the response time of emergency crews, but it also meant that the new Metro system trains were jammed full. A half hour after the Air Florida jet went down, three Metro riders were killed in the first subway crash. It was a weather trifecta: Washington’s nearest airport, one of its main bridges in or out of the city and one of its busiest subway lines were all closed simultaneously, paralyzing the entire metropolitan region.
I managed to be here for the second greatest example of hubris in the face of the elements. On Veteran’s Dayi n 1987, I was in the wilds of Fairfax and walking to my car in the drive of the modest little house to head in to Arlington, early.
It was dark still, and the thin sleet rattled off the roof of the car. It grew in intensity as grew I drove up I-395 toward the Bureau in Arlington, parked the vehicle and trudged up the hill toward the Navy Annex. Looking out the window from my desk, I saw the sleet transition to white stuff, and then begin to mount impressively in the alley between the office blocks.
OPM finally surrendered about 1030, and decreed that we might flee the city. It was too late, of course. We huddled in the office and I elected to leave my car and travel with my boss Drew back out Route 50 in hopes that the major non-interstate roads would not be so chaotic.
When all was said and done, 14 inches fell. It took eight hours to get home, all of 14 miles away.
I think I have lost the Michigan attitude about the white stuff, and now am sympathetic to a Gallic approach to snow. The elements remind us that we cannot impose our will on the earth, only upon each other. So here’s to OPM this morning: Surrender!
Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303