D.C. officials: Blizzard ‘will be deadly’
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Version 0 of 1. Top D.C. officials on Friday warned residents that the incoming blizzard has “deadly” potential. Up to 36 hours of a “wet and heavy” snowstorm — at times dumping three inches per hour with 50 mph winds — is likely to bring down trees and power lines across the nation’s capital, D.C. officials said Friday. “We see this as a major storm. It has life and death implications, and all the residents of the District of Columbia should treat it that way,” D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said at a news conference from the District’s emergency response center in Southeast Washington on Friday morning. [D.C. region braces for epic blizzard; Metro to shut down subway, bus lines] Bowser, who said the storm forecast is likely the worst the area has seen in 90 years, urged residents to “hunker down, shelter in place and stay off the roads.” Residents should be prepared to withstand power outages and should stock up on enough food, water and medicine to last for at least 72 hours, said Chris Geldart, the director of the District’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, who appeared alongside Bowser at the center that will anchor the city’s emergency response through the weekend. Geldart also advised residents to be wary of alternative heating sources as the lights flicker off: Keep generators, the sources of potentially dangerous fumes, outdoors. Use flashlights instead of candles, and keep space heaters away from things that can catch fire. [How to prepare for this weekend’s high-impact winter storm] Bowser and Geldart said they were most concerned about homeless people and others who ventured outdoors during the storm. “We’re asking folks by 3 o’clock today to be where you need to be during this storm” and stay there until Sunday, Geldart said. That includes sports fans and professional athletes, he said. Geldart said that planned sports events Friday would put players “in danger.” “If the Capitals decide to bring their players in and put them in danger like that, then the other folks do the same. I cannot tell the NHL or the NBA what to do. . . . But I would highly encourage them: Do not have those games,” he said. As for those who were planning, rather, to revel in snow with a bit of sledding or a Dupont Circle snowball fight? “Sunday is a great day,” Geldart said. |