Arkansans in D.C. brace for 'Snowzilla'

WASHINGTON -- With weather forecasters predicting up to 30 inches of snow, Arkansans who live here braced for a massive blizzard Friday, stocking up on supplies and preparing for days of immobility.

Arkansas congressional offices on Capitol Hill had closed by early afternoon as the first bands of snow arrived. Constituents' calls were routed to district offices in Little Rock and elsewhere or went straight to voice mail.

The House and Senate canceled their Monday business and lawmakers changed their travel plans, uncertain when flight schedules would return to normal.

Forecasters predicted a 100 percent chance of snow Friday evening and throughout today. Bus routes were canceled after 5 p.m. and the subway system, the nation's second busiest, was set to shut down at 11 p.m.

Officials said mass transit wouldn't resume until Monday at the earliest.

Heba Abdelaal, a legislative aide to Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman, said stores were chaotic places as early as Wednesday, when she bought groceries at a downtown Washington supermarket.

"I was in line for almost an hour just to check out," the former Harrison resident said. "All the stock had pretty much been wiped out, even at that point," she said. "The milk was pretty well raked over. ...There was no fresh meat. Produce was pretty [much] gone."

Boozman's office stayed open until noon; staff members who live nearby showed up while others worked from home.

The annual March for Life, marking the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, proceeded, but with smaller than normal crowds.

Terry Ostlund, a former Berryville resident who now lives in St. Louis, said the anti-abortion activists she traveled with wouldn't tarry long before beginning their 16-hour bus ride home.

She downplayed the perils of driving through a blizzard, saying, "The journey is going to be much easier than it is for those unborn children who don't have a voice."

While the thousands of abortion opponents prepared to march, the Smithsonian museums closed and commerce -- at least the non-electronic kind -- ground to a halt. By 3 p.m. downtown had nearly emptied and a thin layer of snow already coated the ground.

Forecasters said this weekend's weather event could equal or surpass the capital's worst snowstorm in recorded history -- the "Knickerbocker Storm" on Jan. 27-28, 1922, that buried the District of Columbia beneath 28 inches of snow.

Regardless of whether the record falls, Washingtonians expect they'll be stuck at home all weekend. "Everyone's planning to settle in for the next few days, I think," Abdelaal said.

Glenn Mahone, an Aerojet vice president who lives in suburban Maryland, said he's bought fuel, fire logs and food. "I bought a quart of milk. I don't even drink milk," he said. Mahone is president of Arkansas State Society, a social group of Arkansans living in the area.

Mahone's already hired someone to shovel the snow from his driveway and he's covered up the lawn furniture. "I gave all of my employees today off," he said Friday, "so they could get prepared for the onslaught."

The former Hot Springs resident said he was unprepared for the 2010 blizzard, nicknamed "Snowmageddon," that knocked out power and dumped more than 1½ feet of snow on the capital region in February 2010.

This time, he said he's got all kinds of contingency plans.

"I have a generator, so if I lose power my generator automatically kicks in. Just in case something happens with the generator, I'm ready to go with my batteries and so forth."

Clark Jennings, chief of staff at the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, was another Arkansas native bracing for the snowfall.

"The preparations here are probably no different than they would be if we were still in Little Rock -- the kitchen is stocked; firewood has been brought in; flashlights checked; and, most importantly, our laptops fully charged so we can watch DVDs in the event we lose power," Jennings said in an email. "I suppose the only difference is that, if the meteorologists prove correct, we're literally not expecting to leave our house for two to three days -- except for the massive snowball fight that will take place in the park across the street on Sunday, which is being coordinated on Facebook."

Some of the weather observers have branded the latest storm "Snowzilla." Meteorological prognosticators are in high demand.

"The hyperbole of the weather forecasting community has truly reached comical levels -- I think they've run out of words to describe the expected scale of the impending storm," Jennings said. "These guys don't have a 100 percent batting average, though, so we'll see what happens."

A Section on 01/23/2016