WASHINGTON — (CNN) The next government shutdown is coming soon compliments of a snowstorm. Around noon, federal agencies will shutter ahead of a blizzard headed for Washington.
But that’s just the dot on the whopper winter storm that’s raking over at least a dozen states with up to 75 million people in its path. It will dump two feet or more on the capital.
It has already begun paving an icy blotch of freezing rain, sleet or snow from Little Rock, Arkansas, through the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast while stirring trouble as far south as Florida.
“There’s more to this storm than just the snow and ice that we’re predicting,” said CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam. Along its southernmost fringes, it could throw down thunderstorms and large hail.
Even tornadoes are possible.
States of emergency have been called in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, and stretch as far south as the northernmost counties of Georgia.
Washington worst case
Already on Thursday, a dusting of snow during morning rush hour caught Washington off guard with a nasty curtain raiser.
When motorists drove over it, the snow packed down and froze solid, turning street grids into parking lots, as some drivers abandoned their cars, leaving them stranded.
Homeland Security is worried what is yet to come could be much worse. “There are predictions going off the map for it,” said emergency management spokesman Chris Geldart.
By Sunday, Washington could break its all-time snow record. Twenty-eight inches fell in the “Knickerbocker Storm” of 1922, so named, because a theater of that name collapsed under the weight of snow, killing 100 people.
With the weight of so much snow falling at once over the weekend, “we’re concerned that we will perhaps get some collapsed roofs,” Geldart said.
Ice and snow weighing on limbs could break them, swiping down electrical lines. “It is a very real chance that we are going to see some very high numbers for power outages,” Geldart said.
Big dump
The blizzard is expected to hit Baltimore just as hard. The heaviest snow warning from the National Weather Service covers more than 15 counties in the region.
Moving outside the storm’s Washington-Baltimore bullseye, snow will pile up a foot or two in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the CNN weather center said.
Philadelphia and New York City are under blizzard watches. The storm’s path is not yet clear that far north. It could veer off east over the Atlantic, sparing them the worst.
In neighboring Virginia, cars slid off course, and police untangled 767 accidents and attended to 392. A man died in Maryland, when a snowplow hit him.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe has called out 500 National Guard members to face the storm. “We have the equipment, we have the folks, they’re mobilized, they’re ready. We’ve been out for 24 hours. We like to get out early,” McAuliffe told CNN affiliate WJLA.
Residents have wiped supermarket shelves clean of basic staples.
Heaters, shovels and sleds sold at a frenzied pace at Strosniders Hardware in Silver Spring, Maryland. Ice melt chemical, too.
“They know (the storm is) coming,” manager Roy Washington told WJLA-TV. “They hear the forecast, and they want to be prepared for it.”
Flight cancelations
Ahead of the storm’s arrival on the East Coast, airlines have already canceled more than 4,500 flights, and anticipated troubles at regional airports are resulting in flight delays and cancellations elsewhere in the country.
United Airlines announced it would suspend flights at its Washington Dulles International Airport hub and other Mid-Atlantic airports starting Friday afternoon.
Amtrak also announced a modified schedule in the Northeast because of the storm, and the Washington its said Metrorail system would close all day Saturday and Sunday.
“This is not a storm that anyone should take lightly, and I would urge all residents to plan to get to a safe place before the storm arrives Friday afternoon,” said Metro CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld.
At Reagan International Airport near Washington, long lines formed as people got out of town early. Airport workers prepped for the looming blizzard.
“We’re checking our chemical levels, our equipment, and also calling in our snow removal teams,” said Washington airports spokeswoman Kimberly Gibbs.
Ice storm corridor
And farther south, a mix of wintry precipitation is icing a swathe from eastern Arkansas through Tennessee, Kentucky, north Georgia and the Carolinas.
Tennessee was hit early, and a 19-year-old man died after his car slid off the road Wednesday “due to weather and speeding.” Two people died in North Carolina late Wednesday in crashes along snow-covered roads.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, host to the NFC professional football championship on Sunday, the North Carolina Panther Pride parade was canceled.
And American Airlines nixed some flights in and out of the city ahead of the storm, which is expected to dump freezing rain there.
The Panthers’ face the Arizona Cardinals in the championship.
Some Arizona fans took to flight early to beat any cancelations, AZ Central reported. But the team has not changed travel plans and will be on a Delta Airlines flight out of Phoenix late Saturday.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said his state is doing “everything we can” to ensure public safety in case worst-case scenarios come true. Several schools, churches and courts around North Carolina had been ordered closed Friday.
“Our goal with this potential winter storm … is to be overprepared and hopefully underwhelmed,” McCrory said.
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. (PHOTO: Michael Bryant/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
