After the Storm, Digging Out

Residents Take Advantage of Warm-Up to Clear Cars, Ice

Residents warily emerged from their homes yesterday to dig out cars and pry loose ice as the Washington region, much of which had been slowed after the Valentine's Day storm, got a teasing hint of the warmer weather expected to arrive later this week.

Any measure of real relief is still days away, forecasters said, but temperatures rose above freezing and remained there for the first time since Tuesday, softening ever so slightly the slush that had hardened under the wheels of parked vehicles.

Even so, the melting ice remained a stubborn foe.

"Thursday we spent about a second and realized it wasn't going anywhere," said Eduardo Sardina, who was working yesterday afternoon to dislodge his Acura TL from a spot near Dupont Circle. Tucked under one wiper was a note: "Please do not ticket this vehicle. It is stuck in the snow and I cannot move it out of this parking space. Thank You."

As Sardina attacked the problem with a flat-bladed ice hoe and his friend John Repici brandished a snow shovel, the sound of spinning tires could be heard from down the street. People everywhere, it seemed, were taking advantage of the warmer weather and the weekend's free time to do what had been impossible earlier.

For Silver Spring resident Jeff Ferguson, the weapon of choice was a pickax. "It's just rock hard all the way through," the government researcher said as he broke the icy snow at the end of his driveway into more manageable chunks.

Several blocks away, Eric Johnson, a Washington attorney, also made use of a pickax. For 90 minutes on Thursday afternoon he chopped and shoveled to free one of his family's two cars, which had been encased by a passing snowplow. That effort, he said, brought about a passing thought: "This must be what it's like to get the ships out of the Bering Strait."

Utility companies reported that most storm-related outages had been dealt with. More than 300 customers were without power yesterday in Prince George's County, as were almost 200 in the District.

A light dusting of snow was possible overnight, and temperatures today were predicted to fall slightly from yesterday's levels. "Sunday and Monday still look quite cold," said Luis Rosa, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Rosa said temperatures could climb into the mid-40s Tuesday, and then into the lower 50s through the end of the week, as a blast of Pacific air moves into the central and eastern United States. Rain is also possible, he said.

In the meantime, the ice and bitter cold appeared to have left streets across the region the worse for wear. The falling ice chunks that had damaged cars were largely gone, but potholes proved similarly hazardous.

At a Midas auto shop on Rhode Island Avenue, four of every five repairs involved bent wheels or other damage caused by potholes, manager Clifford Lapkoff said.

"We have been inundated," he said. "I can't take another car for the day. We can't handle what's coming through that door."