Obama motorcade stuck in snow as monster snowstorm slams DC area during height of rush hour

FR / Radio in Northern Va. | rabscuttle385

[Dixie Yooper]

From the headlines I saw this morning, he only spent 1 hour on the road. 45 minutes more than the usual trip for his motorcade to travel from Andrews AFB to the White House.
My friend, on the other hand, was stuck in traffic for 8 hours last night trying to get from Tyson's Corner to Annandale in his 4x4 pickup.

[Daffynition]

A must have...Emergency space blanket. Imagine the horror!!! Images of SS agents sacrificing themselves huddled around the prez to keep him warm. Yipes!

I also travel with 9-hr emergency candle lantern.

[meyer]

From the headlines I saw this morning, he only spent 1 hour on the road. 45 minutes more than the usual trip for his motorcade to travel from Andrews AFB to the White House. My friend, on the other hand, was stuck in traffic for 8 hours last night trying to get from Tyson's Corner to Annandale in his 4x4 pickup.

Well, an hour sucks, but 8 hours is downright outrageous. I don't know the distance involved, but if it's his everyday commute, it's probably 20-40 miles or so.

I grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. Snow is in my genes (and sometimes, my jeans). We learned to drive in it, and the local and state governments were equipped to handle the snow (usually, though they tried to take a day off on February 13, 2007, but that's another long story).

2 weeks ago, we had 9 inches here in southeast Tennessee. As you might have guessed, people here don't have any clue about driving in the snow, and the area isn't equipped for this kind of snowfall. I drove to work early that Monday morning and checked traffic cameras around town all day - nobody - I mean nobody was on the road. It was pretty much shut down. Things didn't get back to normal until the end of the week.

[sbMKE]

How could he get stuck - Doesn’t he ride the bus and the subway or the Amtrak bullet train?

[Dixie Yooper]

Well, an hour sucks, but 8 hours is downright outrageous. I don't know the distance involved, but if it's his everyday commute, it's probably 20-40 miles or so. I grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. Snow is in my genes (and sometimes, my jeans). We learned to drive in it, and the local and state governments were equipped to handle the snow (usually, though they tried to take a day off on February 13, 2007, but that's another long story). 2 weeks ago, we had 9 inches here in southeast Tennessee. As you might have guessed, people here don't have any clue about driving in the snow, and the area isn't equipped for this kind of snowfall. I drove to work early that Monday morning and checked traffic cameras around town all day - nobody - I mean nobody was on the road. It was pretty much shut down. Things didn't get back to normal until the end of the week.

My friend's commute is usually less than 30 minutes or about 15 miles. Unlike Obama, he didn't have the SS and local law telling everyone ahead of him to GTF out the way.

I grew up in the U.P. of Michigan, about halfway between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and am very familiar with snow in the jeans... The worst I ever saw was in Michigan City Indiana in 1979. We had 15 foot high drifts which closed down I94 for a week. The mayor of Chicago ended up loosing his job over the crappy job the city did trying to handle it. Now I live near Raleigh. Two weeks ago they closed the schools at 10am because it was supposed to snow. We finally got some flurries around 6pm...

[tanknetter]

Well, an hour sucks, but 8 hours is downright outrageous. I don't know the distance involved, but if it's his everyday commute, it's probably 20-40 miles or so.

Tysons to Annandale (assuming Rt.123 or Rt.7 to 495/Beltway to 236/Little River Turnpike) is only about 10 miles.

The biggest single problem, imho, was how the local media was downplaying how bad things really were. Sure, they were in their usual sensationalist Snopocalypse mode saying that traffic was bad, people were getting stuck, etc. But they SHOULD have been reporting a lot earlier (I saw a bit -finally- on the local Fox 10pm news) that roads like the Beltway were at a a dead stop and people should stay put. In a place like Tysons there are plenty of restaurants and bars (plus the shops and multiplex at the Mall) to hole up in for several hours.

[meyer]

I grew up in the U.P. of Michigan, about halfway between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and am very familiar with snow in the jeans...

Oh yeah, you definitely knew snow then!

The worst I ever saw was in Michigan City Indiana in 1979. We had 15 foot high drifts which closed down I94 for a week. The mayor of Chicago ended up loosing his job over the crappy job the city did trying to handle it.

Yikes! I do remember the winters of 78 and 79 - my first two years of driving. Back then, it was big time fun. As soon as the "authorities" warned people to stay home, I was on the road playing. Of course, they didn't plow roads quite as well back then so I had lots of roads to play on.

Now I live near Raleigh. Two weeks ago they closed the schools at 10am because it was supposed to snow. We finally got some flurries around 6pm...

Same thing here - just the mention of the word "snow" in the forecast is followed by an enormous list of school closings. The biggest problem is that they just don't have the equipment handy to deal with it. And they shouldn't - it snows, on average, about 4 inches or so a year around here and it usually melts the next day. The 9-incher we had 2 weeks ago was the worst since the "blizzard" of 1993, according to the locals. I still lived in Ohio in 93, and up there, it was just a typical substantial snowfall.

[Dixie Yooper]

Same thing here - just the mention of the word "snow" in the forecast is followed by an enormous list of school closings. The biggest problem is that they just don't have the equipment handy to deal with it. And they shouldn't - it snows, on average, about 4 inches or so a year around here and it usually melts the next day. The 9-incher we had 2 weeks ago was the worst since the "blizzard" of 1993, according to the locals. I still lived in Ohio in 93, and up there, it was just a typical substantial snowfall.

I wouldn't want to tangle with the hills you have around SE TN with any kind of snow on them. In the U.P., we had smaller hills and dry snow most the of the Winter. We never had black ice to deal with.

[meyer]

I wouldn't want to tangle with the hills you have around SE TN with any kind of snow on them. In the U.P., we had smaller hills and dry snow most the of the Winter. We never had black ice to deal with.

Now ice is a different story. We do seem to have more ice storms around here, especially at higher elevations. The "black ice" is kind of a misnomer - it's actually a thin layer of ice that forms on roads that is difficult to see because it generally is more in the grain of the asphalt/concrete rather than a big shiny surface like you'd find on a frozen pond. It happened in Cleveland a time or two, but it's more prevalent here because we tend to get rain and then it freezes at night, rather than just getting a good dumping of snow.

I'd much rather drive on the snow than on ice!

[Eye of Unk]

Its Sarah Palins fault.

A little gift from Alaska.

[rabscuttle385]

Perhaps a bit misleading, given the circumstances.

That's what I heard on the radio, posting on my smartphone while stuck in Tysons.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Does anyone else have the feeling that God isn’t impressed with the “global warming” hysteria?