Getting a grip on D.C. region’s icy roads

As the D.C. region’s snow generals prepare for the winter to come, they often wind up re-fighting the last war.

They try to learn lessons from whatever horror befell commuters the previous year. That’s why our preview for last winter focused on adjustments made after the winter of the big blizzards. And it’s why this year’s preview highlights lessons learned from last winter’s single significant snowstorm, the one that shut down the region on the afternoon and evening of Jan. 26.

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But winter history rarely repeats itself, at least not right away. Commuters should remember the lessons of Jan. 26, just as the highway departments and personnel officers do, but long-range forecasts for this season suggest that we could be in for a mix of weather experiences.

Quandaries for deciders

Dean Hunter, deputy chief for facilities, security and contracting at the federal Office of Personnel Management, knows about the mix that the 300,000 federal workers in the D.C. region might confront.

For about four years, he has been a key participant in the gigantic 3 a.m. conference calls that draw together scores of federal and local officials. The officials state their information about approaching storms and express concerns about roads, rails, sidewalks, offices and schools.

The calls influence decisions about deployment of highway equipment, the opening or closing of schools and — in Hunter’s case — the status of federal government offices.

I presented him with a range of weather scenarios, from the certainty of blizzard conditions affecting the morning commute to the possibility of freezing rain affecting the afternoon commute, thinking that he could define a sliding scale of winter decision making from easy to difficult.

Hunter smiled. “They’re all difficult,” he said. That blizzard, for instance. It might be an easy call to tell federal workers to stay home before the storm hits. But afterward, when do you bring them back? He recalled a difficult day of commuting during the blizzard year when federal workers returned to their offices, but the roads and rail systems were not completely ready to receive them.

And quite often, there’s no regionwide weather. The decision makers may be talking about a storm that will bring heavy rain to Southern Maryland and ice to Loudoun.

Jan. 26: What went wrong?

The problem on Jan. 26 wasn’t with the forecast. Snow arrived in late afternoon, just as forecasters said it would. And it got heavy very quickly, just as they said it would.

In anticipation of that, federal workers were allowed to leave two hours before their staggered shifts ended. So there should have been a steady flow of outbound commuters before the storm struck.

Didn’t happen. It was Mother Nature vs. human nature. People looked out their office windows in midafternoon and didn’t see snow, so many kept working. They left when the first flakes fell, and by then, it was too late. They wound up sitting for hours in traffic jams. Some found themselves sitting next to plow trucks, also stuck in the traffic.

Changing federal policies

The Office of Personnel Management engaged in a communications blitz this fall to announce and explain its revised policy on the comings and goings of federal workers. Officials describe the approach as an “all hazards” policy that could cover earthquakes, hurricanes and attacks, but it also has applications for winter weather.