Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016 |
The beautiful sun-shiny day started with cold temperatures
but nobody would have believed that by 6 p.m. the commuting life in the
surrounding suburbs of D.C. would grind to a halt, so much so that a major
highway had to be closed.
I thought it was strange that, in light of the forecast of one
inch of snow for the evening, there were no plows in place or salt trucks
anywhere along the roads I traveled. I-95
N was crowded as usual, made worse by an overturned eighteen wheeler on the
ramp to Fairfax.
The snow dusted the roads already by 6 p.m. and, turning
from hwy. 286 onto hwy. 123, my car slipped on ice and it took a few
corrections before I could control my vehicle. Everybody was driving slowly, 30
mph, better safe than sorry. Again, no plows in sight.
Nine miles later I came to the top of the Occoquan Bridge. It
became painfully obvious to all drivers that it would be impossible to slide
down the steep incline onto the bridge without overturning vehicles or a major
pileup. Everyone stopped and traffic jammed for miles.
I waited patiently for a sign of VDOT presence. After I
realized that was not going to happen, I called 911 and reported that traffic
has stopped on hwy. 123, a major thoroughfare. A few minutes later, three fire
trucks showed up, asking everyone if they were hurt. They could not understand
why the roads were not treated either.
Six hours after I left Fairfax, on a stretch of maybe 14
miles, we were finally able to clear the bridge and traffic moved. But that was
not the end of the ordeal. As we pulled onto I-95 South, commuter traffic was
moving slowly on all three snowy lanes. I-95 North was also clogged with
traffic and barely moving. I was elated
but my joy was short lived. Once I got on the ramp past Woodbridge, the road
was really iced and cars were sliding left and right into each other.
Hwy. 1 was much worse. Traffic was virtually stopped going
North and moving very slowly going South. With temperatures below freezing,
turning onto side roads or neighborhoods was like turning onto an ice skating
rink.
By the grace of God, I reached my home in one piece,
thanking my guardian angel for my fortune. Who knew that a 27-mile journey
would turn into a six hour ordeal? I could have driven to Ohio in six hours.
This dusting of snow that paralyzed the D.C. suburbs in
northern Virginia was a metaphor for the government sclerosis, an incurable condition.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has failed the taxpayers again
in a big way. I shudder to think what is going to happen this weekend when meteorologists
forecast over one foot of snow.
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