Update: There is now research/articles coming out that the stupid ice will not melt TILL MARCH! I hate it here.... Tomorrow, Wednesday, and Friday we are expected to get more snow/wintery mixes....
These photos are from Wednesday morning when I trekked into work for the first time we were supposed to be back in the office after two days of working from home. WE SHOULD NOT HAVE GONE BACK TO WORK. I live less than a half mile from the Capitol Complex and this is what I saw going in. Sidewalks were either A) Unpassable or B) Fine and there was no rime or reason.
Thankfully, on Wednesday I was able to make it safety there and back but on Thursday.... No I got to work fine but right when I was almost home (I have a picture of the area below) I just completely ate it in front of a ton of people. I am bruised up the entire right side of my body. I tried to shake it off initially but last night I had to text my boss and say hey I fell and I might be late getting in tomorrow and he just told me to work from home instead. What really sends me though is I have a friend who told me today that the area is STILL not cleaned up and there are a growing number of complaint because of the people falling. This isn't limited to just the sidewalks though as the District of Columbia has still not cleared all of the roads yet. Some 4 lane roads (two in each direction) only have a single lane in the middle of the whole road that people can use.
So why can't DC dig out of this? Well that's because it has become what is known as Snowcrete. When the snow started on Saturday we got between 5 and 7 inches of snow. Then we got 2 to 3 inches of sleet and this was followed up with anywhere between half an inch to a full inch of "frozen rain." All told most areas in the district received roughly 8-9 inches of precipitation. Because of how it started with fluffy snow and slowly worked its way to frozen rain it ended up creating literal blocks of ice. When the snow started and through Sunday the district only deployed 20 snow plows which was an enormous shortfall for what was needed. This allowed all those types of precipitation to really set and when you factor in the weight further solidify. We haven't had a day above 30 in roughly a week and a half so stuff is melting a little in the sun only to refreeze.
Now regular snow equipment isn't enough. They have had to bring in contraction equipment, front loaders, excavators, graders, etc. everything really to get this ice out of here. At intersection the crosswalks for people have 3-4 foot piles of ice people have to climb over. This has resulted in people literally taking metal shovels, hammers, and even sledgehammers they have at home to these things and clearing at least some sort of path. Now 6 days since it started roads still not clear. People still falling. People in wheelchairs.... having to have groups of people assist moving them because their electric wheel chair or even regular one is getting stuck. While it is beautiful and fantastic to see people rally together like they are this is a complete failure on the Mayor of DC. The DDOT (DC's Department of Transportation) has had the gall to put out social media posts about how people should not walk in the streets.... those are the only things that might be clear though and useable to long stretches.
This road might look nice butttttttt there is about 2 solid inches of ice on it and then about another inch of slush on top of that.
This car is completely iced in. There is no way to get it out at all as ice has completely surrounded it.
This is actually where I ended up slipping yesterday and eating it in front of a bunch of people....
Its funny because in the afternoon the roads were actually worse as the ice had spread out onto the roads again and it was down to two lanes at the thickest part.
Under here is the pathway you are supposed to take to where I work.... There was no path anymore.
Below are some other photos I have been sent from what people have seen or run into....
Oh you would like to cross here.... How about 6 feet of ice instead.
Here people have cleared this themselves. This wasn't the city but rather people with buckets and hammers.
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