‘Historic’ Snow Shuts Down Federal Government
WASHINGTON – Federal agencies will be closed Monday in Washington as the region continues to dig out from a weekend storm that dumped more than two feet of snow in the nation’s capital.
Spokeswoman Sedelta Verble says the Office of Personnel Management made the decision to close around 5 p.m. Sunday. Federal workers were told to stay home because of safety reasons.
The decision affects some 230,000 government employees who work inside the Washington Beltway. It costs the government roughly $100 million to close for the day.
Essential services will continue, and emergency employees were expected to report to work.
The storm has grounded planes and brought trains and buses to a standstill, leaving thousands of travelers stranded. Hundreds of thousands were still without power.
The amount of snow that buried the Mid-Atlantic region this weekend has broken some records and came close to others.
The totals ranged from around a foot in parts of Ohio to 3 feet or more in Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia.
Almost 18 inches of snow was measured at Reagan National Airport, just outside Washington. That’s the fourth-highest storm total for the nation’s capital.
At Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia, the record was shattered with 32 inches, and Virginia Emergency Management spokeswoman Laura Southerd says parts of the area saw 37 inches.
Philadelphia got 28.5 inches, just shy of the record 30.7 inches during the January 1996 blizzard. Farther west in Pennsylvania, 31 inches fell in Upper Strasburg and 30 inches in Somerset.
