General Blog Expression

Snow Storm

As the part of news www.baltimoresun.com that the snow storm is coming early on sunday morning. It’s not so dangerous at all just careful in your day at Marylan life. Sounds easy, right? Indeed! Of course, in real life, getting a big snowstorm at any given location isn’t always so easy. Maybe so in, say, the highest elevations of the western U.S. mountains. In lower elevations in the eastern U.S. south of the Mason-Dixon Line, not so much. Below the details of the part news.

Marylanders on Sunday morning began digging out from the record-breaking snowstorm that dumped more than 21 inches on the Baltimore area in less than two days.

It was the biggest December snowstorm to hit Baltimore since recordkeeping began in 1883, and the seventh biggest at any time of year. Heavy snow also set new records at Reagan National Airport in Washington and Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia.

Light traffic flowed slowly along area highways as churches and many businesses remained closed on the last Sunday before Christimas. BWI Thurgood Marshall international Airport was open and fully operational after workers cleared the second of two major commercial runways at 3:30 a.m., a spokesman said, but given storm-related delays throughout the East, he advised travelers to contact their airlines before going to the airport.

Gov. Martin O’Malley said Sunday morning that workers were making progress on clearing highways and roads, but urged motorists to exercise caution. He expressed particular concern for the acceleration and deceleration lanes on highway onramps and offramps, which had not been fully cleared; around work crews; and on the roads in general later Sunday, as temperatures drop and water and snow freeze.

“The main word for this afternoon if you’re driving on the roads is ‘patience,’ ” O’Malley told reporters. “Just be very patient. Allow for a lot more time. Slow down, and safeguard the lives of your fellow citizens who are on the roads with you or are working still on those roads.”

Officials urged football fans to take public transportation to the Ravens game Sunday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium.

The storm punished retailers and procrastinating holiday shoppers on one of the year’s busiest shopping days, and for a time put the Ravens’ afternoon contest Sunday in doubt when the Chicago Bears‘ initial flight into BWI was delayed.

Snow piled up at a rate of as much as 2 to 3 inches an hour, propelled by heavy winds that blew flakes sideways and made it difficult to keep roads clear. By dinnertime Saturday, most areas had seen totals approaching nearly 2 feet.

State Transportation Secretary Beverley K. Swaim-Staley said that 2,400 workers and 2,300 pieces of equipment were clearing roads starting at 10 p.m. Friday.

Though no serious injuries were reported on the major arteries, secondary roads were littered with vehicles that had lost control in the snowy, icy conditions. Exit ramps were said to be particularly treacherous.

“If there are roads, there’s a car crushed up on it,” Anne Arundel County police officer Jeremy Serio said Saturday. Asked if any roads in the county had been closed, Serio said: “I wish they all were.”

Dozens of flights at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport were grounded before officials halted all flights in the early afternoon to clear runways. An Air Jamaica flight twice got stuck on the runway, holding its passengers hostage for more than six hours and prompting at least one of them to call police.

One Chicago Bears’ flight out of Illinois was also scratched. The team boarded a later flight that landed at BWI late Saturday night.

Workers at M&T Bank Stadium cleared snow all day, and Ravens vice president of operations Bob Eller said the venue would be ready for today’s kickoff, which was pushed back to 4:15 p.m. in anticipation of the snowstorm. The team had 700 workers at the stadium beginning Friday to help clear the area, as well as 125 inmates and supervisors from the state Department of Corrections.

More than 1,000 homes in Baltimore County, 500 in Anne Arundel County and 100 in Harford County were without power at various times Saturday, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric, with officials attributing many of the outages to motorists slamming into utility poles.

Unrelated to the storm, about 400 customers in Baltimore were without service because of a problem with an underground cable. The weather hindered efforts to repair the damage.

Malls and shopping centers that should have been packed with shoppers buying last-minute holiday gifts on what is usually one of the busiest days of the season were nearly empty in the morning, then locked at midday.

Stores were reporting sales of sleds, snow boots and food to help weather the storm, instead of gadgets, clothes and jewelry for under the tree.

Most large shopping centers were closed altogether by early afternoon. At White Marsh, a handwritten sign on the door of Trade Secret read: “Closed because of the blizzard of 2009,” and had a hand-drawn snowman underneath the lettering.

“We’re all nauseous,” said Debbie Stoll, owner of Kiss N’ Make-up, a shop that sells cosmetics and gifts in Hampden. She opened later than usual, at 11:30 a.m., and after three hours had rung up just four sales – barely 10 percent of what she would have expected in good weather.

source : http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/weather/bal-snow-mainbar-1220,0,7995482.story