The MidAtlantic Region is in very dangerous, unprecedented territory right now.

[Stinky The Clown]

When today's snow is over, some totals could exceed 5 feet on the ground. The three regional reporting stations - Dulles, National, and BWI - are in the middle of the range of snow totals. Many areas, while not the reported official total, exceed them by a goodly margin.

Buffalo, Aspen, Big Bear, elsewhere may be able to deal with five feet of snow. Maryland and Virginia cannot.

Several of the local governments have pulled their plows off the roads for a few hours as the worst of this current storm winds up.

This is an area where, in the urban districts, flat roofs abound. Flat roofs in this area a simply not designed to carry this load. Collapses have happened and more are expected. Mercifully, no deaths from collapses .... yet.

Schools are closed, across the region, until next Monday at the earliest.

Winds this afternoon and tomorrow are expected to gust upwards of 50 MPH. Maybe even higher right on the coast.

Two feet of snow, just today, is likely in some areas.

Baltimore City has instituted Phase Three Snow Emergency. It has never been issued before. It prohibits all cars except official vehicles from driving on city streets.

Good vibes would be welcome.

[Adsos Letter]

1. Good vibes sent! My daughter is in Philly.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Philly is supposed to get even more out of this one than DC or Baltimore .......

.... but they have far less on the ground from the last one. But it will be very bad up there, to be sure.

[TorchTheWitch]

19. Philly got 28.5 inches in the last one

Outlying areas got 30 inches or more. Two and half to three feet on snow on the ground is FAR LESS than DC???

I have a flat roof as do the the other rowhouses on my street, and we're all worried about the weight. There's no gutter drainage because the roof gutters are frozen and blocked with snow and ice, so as it melts there's nowhere for it to drain. These places are old - they were built soon after WWII, and my house and many others on the street have seen no improvements since then.

[Tansy_Gold]

Sent also. My daughter is in northern NJ

Supposedly they missed the big one last week but may not be so lucky this time.

[customerserviceguy]

28. I guarantee, they're getting that snow

My company in NJ closed down today, as was expected. I didn't even have to drive in, they had it on the weather hotline at 6:00 AM this morning.

[HeresyLives]

2. Just out of curiousity why is it called the

'mid Atlantic' region?

[unhappycamper]

4. Florida's at the bottom & Maine's at the top.

Pretty much everything from SC to NY is considered the Mid-Atlantic region.

[HeresyLives]

9. Facepalm! Of course!

I never thot of that, I was thinking 'middle of the ocean'??

Thank you.

[HillbillyBob]

27. Middle of the Atlantic would be Bermuda, Bimini and Azores not so much

nt

[dgibby]

5. Because it's located in the middle of the Atlantic coast line of the US. n/t

[BeyondGeography]

7. Cuz it's kinda in the middle of our Atlantic coastline

:shrug:

[HillbillyBob]

8. The middle region of the Atlantic US coast.

nt

[zipplewrath]

12. Middle of the Atlantic Coast Line

It's the middle of the continental Atlantic coastline. It's a more accurate term when discussing the region between Richmond and Philly. This storm I believe is centered more on Baltimore to NYC. I've lived through hurricanes, tornados, and snow storms. Give me snow storms any day. That said, bring in the fire wood now, you may be cooking over it.

[closeupready]

30. The middle of the Atlantic Ocean coastline.

(or so I've heard. :rofl: )

[arcadian]

32. By the way, here in the Mid-Atlantic, we don't say "coast line" we say "seaboard".

:D

[WI_DEM]

6. In the end the fed government will have to declare disaster areas is my guess.

[I Have A Dream]

10. Sending good vibes. May all stay safe and may property loss be minimized. nt

[dgibby]

11. MSNBC just reported a 50 car pile up

on I-64 near Williamsburg, Va. Several people transported to hospitals with minor injuries. Interstate closed.

[AllentownJake]

13. Lived through it in 1996 and 1997 and 2000

and there was more snow than. I remember shoveling the stuff off the roof than.

[11 Bravo]

14. I'm in Northern VA, about 10 miles west of DC, and I've never seen anything like this.

I've lived here for over 35 years, and not even the blizzard of '79 (the Washington's Birthday storm) comes close to what we're seeing now. Hunker down, Stinky, it can't go on forever.

[aintitfunny]

15. Here in SW Baltimore County

The blowing snow just keeps coming. My husband had to climb up onto the carport roof yesterday to get the snow off to prevent a collapse with the additional snow today. Look outside and all I see is white, my Saturn is not visible as we never cleaned it off from the last bout. No where to put the fresh snow.

[Roselma]

24. Here in Anne Arundel County

we got some freezing rain and ice last night. It was sleeting around 1 a.m. before I went to bed. So, that freezing rain compressed the standing snow a bit. It doesn't look deep (maybe 7 inches from last night), but it weighs a TON. My son went out to shovel out our heat pump and said it is so much heavier than what we had last weekend. I'll be hoping that your carport roof holds if you got that hour or so of freezing rain around midnight last night. The roof might not look particularly deeply covered, but it might be holding as much or more weight than from last weekend. Looking across my courtyard, one of my neighbor's sloped roof leads to a gutter that looks to be bowed from an ice dam. Ugh...this is going to be a really expensive storm.

[aintitfunny]

36. Luckily we did not get the ice precip

So the carport should hold. Though we do have gutters filled with ice. I have heard reports of a number of roof collapses. The forecast for North and East of the city just got more dreadful with a possibility of 20-30" of total snow from this latest beast. Frozen Tundra. It is absolutely going to be very expensive for homeowners, th municipalities and the state Good luck to you.

[Roselma]

40. Thanks for the good wishes

from you and good wishes back. From television reports, I understand that Senator Mikulski has been working with DHS secretary Napolitano to see about declaring this a national disaster so that funds from FEMA can be released to offset government costs and to provide those who have uninsured property damage and those with business losses due to the storm some financial relief. I'm crossing my fingers on that for all of us along the east coast affected by these storms. Also, the governor said that he wanted people to know that there is no way that we will be seeing pavement on our roads for several days, and another storm should be arriving in our area on Saturday. Ugh...I've had enough snow for awhile.

[lonestarnot]

16. I couldn't take it.

I'd freak if I were buried under a roof that might collapse at any moment. I'd feel like a Haitian with foreknowledge of an impending earthquake. I'd have to stay outside and let the wind blow me away. :( Climate change. :scared: Sending good vibes after I stop thinking about the above mania.

[WhiteTara]

17. good luck! I had no idea it was SO bad there

Take care. I'll send you good thoughts!

[jtrockville]

18. Checking in from Rockville, MD (few miles north of DC)

We've still got power, but it's coming down HARD.

[femrap]

20. Many foresaw a tough winter

due to NO SUNSPOT activity. Cold, cold and more cold.

Hope everyone keeps their electric....that's the killer!

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Most snowplaows that are still running have been told to raise the plows and just make the roads ...

..... passable for Humvees and heavy duty emergency equipment. No effort will be made to clear the roads enough for cars until the storm passes.

[mike_c]

22. damn, 'bro-- ya'll stay warm and safe....

Do you have a wood stove or fireplace in case the power goes out? Sounds like that's a given, or at least it would be here (hell, if it ever snowed like that here, the electricity would be off all winter, at least).

[Stinky The Clown]

23. Salt supplies are good, but not available

The salt domes are all depleted. The ports have huge piles of salt waiting, but no way to get it out to salt domes for use by the salters and plows.

[Gormy Cuss]

25. All the cities in your area should invoke severe snow emergency restrictions.

It's the only way to get some employers to shut down. The roof problem is very real. Even in snowbelt areas where load factors are much greater the older flat roof buildings are shoveled when the accumulation gets this high -- I used to place temp workers to do this in Maine.

Please get out there in the snow storm and clear your main pathway every few hours. Don't wait until the storm is over to start digging out. That gusty wind forecast could mean drifts that completely block your doors.

Vibes to you all and a hope for warm, sunny weather.

[bigtree]

26. Baltimore City says only city vehicles allowed on road in town

More snow than I've seen in my lifetime in this area. Still coming down . . .

[Roselma]

29. $500 fine

for those driving in Baltimore City due to this phase 3 emergency. The problem is, there were people who went to work who can't now use their own vehicles to get home. Only city vehicles permitted.

[Blue_In_AK]

31. You all stay safe back there,

especially those of you with flat roofs. I have my own horror stories to tell about my own (previously) flat roof. $18,000 later.

All I can say is get up and there and shovel your ass off.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

33. Check on Senior's in your neighborhood.

I always worry about them the most.

[dgibby]

34. MSNBC reporting that there was a partial collapse of

a building housing artifacts from the Air and Space Museum.

[susanr516]

35. Sending good vibes from the TX Gulf Coast

I may not have experienced any blizzards, but I know exactly how frightening it feels to watch as a terrible storm approaches. Sending many, many good thoughts your way.

[kwassa]

37. DC just broke the all-time winter snow total record, and winter ain't over.

[Lugnut]

38. A civil emergency has been declared here.

It covers pretty much the eastern side of PA. We have over a foot here in the moountains and it's still coming down like gangbusters.

[shraby]

39. I feel for you..I remember the 1978 blizzard. We

lived in Michigan and my brothers trailer house was almost disappeared. They had to climb out a window in order to get out of it. Mr. Shraby plowed for 24 hours straight except for a couple short breaks just to keep at least a lane open in the streets in our small town. We didn't lose a street, but Manistee lost a bunch and the town next to us had to pony up extra money for large front end loaders to clean theirs. The Coast Guard cutter in Grand Traverse Bay went turtle and stayed that way till spring.

[undergroundpanther]

41. snow sucks

I live in Maryland,in snowmageddon. Harford County. The snow is incredibly deep here.The wind howls tonight.