Washington, D.C. was blanketed with up to 24 inches of snow during the recent blizzard. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is getting high marks from residents for the city’s handling of the recent blizzard. One of the worst blizzards in the city’s history took place Jan. 22-23 and dropped as much as 24 inches of snow on the nation’s capital. Bowser organized her snow response team, declared a snow state of emergency on Jan. 21 for the blizzard, and made sure that snow removal equipment was available to clear the District’s main thoroughfares and eventually side streets and cul-de-sacs.
In addition, Bowser held press conferences on Jan. 23-25, twice a day, to keep District residents informed of developments.
Greg Rhett, a Ward 7 community activist and longtime District resident, was impressed with what the mayor did. “If I had to give her a grade it would be a B-plus,” he said. “She was very consistent with providing the public information that was needed.”
While D.C. Schools opened on Jan. 27 neighboring jurisdictions seemed to have more trouble getting back to business. Prince George’s and Montgomery County governments and schools were closed on Jan. 25-26 with no definite time set for resuming business at AFRO press time. Residents of the two neighboring Maryland counties complained on social media and the news that they were snowed in and there has been no snow removal equipment sent to their neighborhoods.
That was not the case in the District for the most part. Anthony Lorenzo Green, the chairman of 8B advisory neighborhood commission in Ward 8 in Southeast and a sometime critic of Bowser, said it was too early to give the mayor an assessment on her performance during the blizzard.
“She was caught off guard on Wednesday by the clipper that dropped two inches in some places but it seems she is doing the right things now,” Green said. “I think it was good that she shut the District government down for Monday because the main roads need to be taken care of first and then the side streets.”
Green agreed with Rhett that Bowser did the right thing with her twice-daily updates to the media. He does have a concern, though. “I would love to see more plows on this side of town in Ward 8,” he said.
One of Ward 8’s most prominent businesses is the International House of Pancakes franchise owned by the family of Clarence Jackson Jr. and located on Alabama Avenue., S.E. Tyoka Jackson, co-owner of the two franchises – the other one is in Columbia Heights in Northwest – said he would give the mayor a passing grade but he is really interested in how the Metro bus and rail system performs. “Many of our employees ride the Metro to work,” Tyoka said.
Washington Metro general manager Paul Wiedefeld made the decision to shut down the entire system on Jan. 23-24 and brought back limited bus and rail service on Jan. 25. Wiedefeld said he didn’t want Metro’s cars to become damaged during the storm due to the high winds, piling snow, and ice build-up. He said that buses wouldn’t be able to function properly with the blizzard in force and streets packed with snow.
The high winds of the blizzard were expected to generate numerous power outages but that never took place. Rhett said the fact that there were minimal power outages by Pepco, the utility company that primarily services the city, is a milestone. “For years, Pepco has been criticized by many people, including myself, as being ineffective in restoring power to people but I saw on the news that Saturday night there were only four outages,” he said. “To me, that is great.”
