Fun times in Washington DC - more snow

That second line of snowstorms is due in a day or so and the Washington, DC snow removal people are having a bit of a problem. From DC FM station WTOP:

25 percent of D.C. plows out of commission
As the region braces for another major storm, one local government is having trouble keeping their plows on the roads, WTOP has learned.

As many as 60 of the District's snow plows are not working -- bad news for thousands of residents still waiting for their streets to be cleared.

According to an internal email obtained by WTOP, 25 percent of the District's snow plow fleet is down and they're having trouble getting replacement parts.

D.C. is also now rationing their salt supply.

The email states they'll have enough to get through the upcoming storm. DDOT has 9,000 tons of salt on hand, with another 32,000 tons coming in soon. The city normally has 40-50,000 tons of salt onhand.

The email also raises concerns about staffing issues. Crews have been working non-stop since the blizzard on Friday.

Plows will continue to salt streets to prevent re-freezing overnight.

Blogger Megan McCardle lives in D.C. and has the following to say:

Blogging the Snowpocalypse
You will probably have noticed that I did not post this morning. That's because sometime before 8 am, I decided that I should get to the grocery store and pick up my lung medicine in the hiatus between snows.

Four hours later, I returned with a trunk full of whatever could be scavenged from the grocery store shelves. You have never seen a city as completely incompetent at dealing with snow as Washington DC.

I mean, two feet of snow is inconvenient anywhere. But in DC, only the main streets have been plowed. And by "plowed", I mean that one meager lane has been cleared, so that even major arteries like New York Avenue frequently narrow to one lane. The side streets have been turned into defacto one-way streets--except that no one knows which way. The result is a lot like driving on a country road in Ireland, where you are apt to come upon someone going the other way, and then spend precious moments staring at each other until one party reluctantly backs up to a wider spot.

The difference is that Irish drivers are somewhat familiar with the conditions. DC today is the province of taxi drivers and SUV owners who seem simultaneously confused and overconfident. As I eased down the street in our little Japanese sedan, I quickly surmised that none of the drivers in the bite-sized tanks surrounding me had ever seen snow before. Three blocks later I revised that opinion: I don't think any of them had ever seen cars before. Certainly not the ones they were operating.

Apparently, if you buy an SUV in the Greater Washington DC area, this gives you license to drive much faster than the rest of traffic on a road that only has one open lane. Unfortunately, it does not give you any basic information about the function of four wheel drive--such as the fact that while 4WD does allow you to accelerate better in snowy conditions, it does not improve your braking ability. Nor, as one of my twitter mates pointed out, does it enhance your turning power. And of course, four wheel drive will not stop you from fishtailing on the slick layer of slush covering a solid base of hard-packed snow. I witnessed one minor fender bender and three near accidents in the perhaps three miles that I covered this morning.

I went to school at Boston University and bummed around New England for a number of years after that so I am familiar with how to drive in snow. It is funny both in Seattle and up here, how many people are thrown for a loop by even a light dusting. They are completely unaware of the laws of physics...