Mid-Atlantic Braces for Another Winter Storm

ANAHAD O’CONNOR The New York Times 02/05/2010 09:25

A major winter storm stretching from the Midwest to the Mississippi Valley was headed for the East Coast on Thursday, threatening to dump two feet of snow on the Mid-Atlantic and potentially paralyze Washington for the second time this season.

Before a single snowflake had even hit the ground, the storm was already causing severe problems up and down the East Coast.

On Thursday evening, Amtrak announced that it had suspended most of its southbound service from Washington for Friday, and a number of airlines began canceling flights out of major cities. Southwest Airlines announced it had canceled “the majority” of its afternoon and evening flights leaving Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington on Friday, and all of its flights from those cities on Saturday.

In Virginia, which was expected to take the brunt of the storm, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell declared a state of emergency and warned residents in the storm’s path to prepare emergency kits, stay off roads and brace for outages. The state’s General Assembly called off all floor sessions and committee meetings that were scheduled for Friday, the first time in recent memory that the legislature was shut down because of snow, The Associated Press reported.

Throughout the Washington region, people were lining up at grocery stores Thursday night to do emergency shopping, The Washington Post reported. Some were there to pick up food and supplies to help them get through the storm; others were simply trying to get a jump on their preparations for Super Bowl parties.