An unidentified man clears debris on Saul Road in Chevy Chase on Friday morning. (Patrick D. Witty — For The Washington Post)

By Susan Levine and Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, January 16, 1999; Page A01

Blindsided by an ice storm that triggered one of the worst power outages ever in the Washington area, hundreds of thousands of people struggled yesterday to stay warm and make do as they braced for the possibility their electricity might not return until Tuesday.

For many, particularly in Montgomery County and parts of Northern Virginia and Northwest Washington, daily life was crippled, if not halted -- dramatically illustrating the fragile dependence of modern times on the flip of a switch. Automated teller machines were out, as were gasoline pumps at many service stations. WETA-TV (Channel 26) went black for more than 10 hours until employees found a diesel generator. The Montgomery County jail conducted bond hearings by flashlight. Families seeking refuge at Tysons Corner Center were booted out at 6 p.m. because of water problems at the mall.

Up and down Metro's Red Line, riders confronted stalled elevators, inoperable Farecard machines and even closed stations. Negotiating roads, though wet by morning rather than frozen, was often no easier. Of more than 700 traffic signals in Montgomery, 430 were dead.

Across the area, but especially in Montgomery, hotels filled to capacity with customers fleeing cold, dark homes. The 365-room Doubletree Hotel on Rockville Pike was sold out by 8 a.m. Residence Inn by Marriott, on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, with 187 rooms, was sold out by noon.

Other Montgomery residents, with pioneering spirit, decided to ride out the outage. More than two dozen people were waiting when the Home Depot in Germantown opened at 6 a.m. By 10 a.m., the store had sold every generator, log of firewood, candle, kerosene heater and any other supply that could warm hands and feet.

Maryland's biggest jurisdiction was ground zero for the storm. By 7 a.m., 11 of Potomac Electric Power Co.'s 41 substations in Montgomery had been knocked out as ice-encrusted tree limbs snapped or pulled power lines. More than 75 percent of the company's outages occurred in Montgomery -- 187,000 customers, compared with 34,000 in Prince George's County and 12,500 in the District.

"We had Montgomery County basically out of business," company President John Derrick said as more than 160 crews canvassed neighborhoods, worrying most immediately about the 1,223 live wires reported down.

Farther north and east, 39,000 customers in Howard County and at least 4,000 in Anne Arundel County were left in the dark, according to the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. The cumulative toll was so great, Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) declared a state of emergency in Howard, Prince George's, Montgomery and three northern counties to speed state relief to the afflicted areas.

The winter storm moved northeast overnight Thursday, bisecting the region along a freeze line that largely spared Southern Maryland, Anne Arundel and central Virginia. But in Northern Virginia and Washington's northern suburbs, heavy, cold rains encrusted tree limbs and power lines in half-inch sheaths of ice.

In Northern Virginia, Virginia Power reported 159,000 customers in the dark at one point. The Alexandria and McLean areas were hardest hit, in part because two transformers failed Thursday night. Utility workers weren't sure whether that had been caused by the weather or simply bad timing, a spokesman said.

No deaths were blamed on the storm in the Washington area, although elsewhere in Maryland and in West Virginia, at least six people died Thursday and yesterday in traffic accidents caused by icy road conditions. Elsewhere in the Northeast, misery had much company, with the storm closing highways, delaying flights and making commutes miserable from Philadelphia to Boston.

By 8 p.m., area utilities said more than 275,000 customers remained without electricity, including 170,000 served by Pepco and nearly 70,000 in Northern Virginia.

The mess and disruption were tempered somewhat by the beauty. The world to which much of the region awoke yesterday literally shimmered. On many streets, the limbs of crystal trees arced gracefully. Sequins of ice sparkled on lawns.

Then reality set in. For some, that happened earlier than for others. Residents on South Glenn Road in Potomac were startled from sleep about 5 a.m. by the hissing sound of a power line that fell onto the road and sparked and flamed until firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze about 11 a.m.

"It set the whole road on fire. It melted the asphalt -- it was one big flaming quagmire of stuff," said neighbor Mark Monteferrante, 37.

Others saw what they thought was lightning, only to learn hours later that the spark in the sky had been a transformer blowing out. Shards of ice and tree limbs fell thunderously onto roofs and sidewalks.

Dave Dunmore, an engineer at Visual Networks in Rockville, was in line midday at the Starbucks Coffee at Rockville Pike and Montrose Road. So were 40 other people, all waiting for coffee at one of the few places along the pike with power.

Dunmore had gone in to work at 5:30 a.m. after hearing that power had gone out. The office was quiet, "dark and quiet," he said. "You couldn't call in, you couldn't call out. Our engineers were joking that this is the drill for Y2K," when some predict widespread computer outages on Jan. 1, 2000.

To the south, in Bethesda, Steve Calem was searching for a room at the inn -- any inn. He'd begun calling hotels at 10 a.m. but couldn't get through, so he began searching in person by car. He'd tried three hotels and been turned away at each. With a newborn daughter and 2-year-old son bundled at home, he was concerned.

"We figured the electricity would be on by now," said Calem, a mortgage banker. "What can you do? It's very frustrating."

Some people were cashing in. On Route 29 near Burtonsville, Don Thurber put up a sign along the road saying, simply, "Firewood." He was charging $15 to $40 a trunk-load, depending on the size of the car, and before day's end he'd sold more than 100 trunk-loads, with a dozen cars or more still waiting.

Carole Hyman, of Beltsville, popped open the back of her rented Dodge Neon. The wood would provide the only heating for her house overnight, she said. "We're new homeowners, so we're trying to hang in it at least for tonight."

John Sadler pulled up to Thurber in a black Volvo and asked the price, only to drive away angry. "That's highway robbery," said Sadler, who had three young children back home in Silver Spring.

Trees and power lines blocked numerous streets, and a few residents nearly became victims in the process. Arlington police officer John Sarafinas had a more dramatic story than most. He had stopped a motorist for a traffic violation on Glebe Road when he heard a loud pop behind him. Sarafinas tapped on his gas pedal and moved forward slightly. A power pole crashed to the ground where his car had just been.

And Elise and Anthony Knox of Glenelg in Howard County thought they were taking a break as they and their two girls ate lunch at a fast-food restaurant in Columbia. Then they returned to their car -- and found a huge branch crashed on its hood.

"What if that had happened when we were getting out of the car?" a shaken Elise Knox asked as her husband tugged the limb off.

For tree-cutting services and anyone willing to hoist a chain saw, business couldn't be beat. Frank Mirabile and his crew, working on a suburban Columbia street, heaved frosty chunks of white pine into a whining orange wood-chipping machine, transforming them at the other end into a shower of wood and ice chips.

"It's really bad out there," said Mirabile, who runs an Ellicott City landscape and building management company. "The ice on the trees was heavy . . . and it snapped these trees like twigs."

After delivering the bad news Thursday evening when it issued its winter storm warning, the National Weather Service could happily report yesterday that the worst was over. Temperatures for the next five to 10 days should reach the 50s, which means power crews likely won't have to contend with additional outages over the weekend.

Several jurisdictions in Northern Virginia and Maryland opened shelters for those without heat. Montgomery offered residents five locations -- only to have to close one later when its electricity flickered off. County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D), powerless in his Rockville town house, was planning to spend the night at his sister's in Darnestown.

Even in adversity, people managed yesterday to find moments of pleasure. At a Germantown home, Edgar and Nora Etz sat in front of a fire warming their boots and drying their gloves. Edgar Etz, a 61-year-old research chemist, just had finished two hours of hand-sawing a limb that had fallen from his silver maple tree and barely missed demolishing his van.

With featherbeds for warmth and a battery-powered radio for news and entertainment,the couple didn't mind the lack of heat and power.

"If we get desperate, Karen will break out her flute," Nora said, winking at her daughter.

"She's being sarcastic," Karen Etz shot back with a smile.

The family planned to cook dinner on a gas camping stove and heat water for a shower.

"We'll do it primitive style," said Nora, getting into the spirit of roughing it. "We'll talk."

"Take naps," Karen added.

"As long as we have sunlight, I could start getting stuff in order for taxes," Nora said.

"We'll go for a walk," Karen offered.

"I guess we'll just cope," Nora said. "We're used to camping out."

Staff writers Maria Glod, Tom Jackman, David Jackson, Tamara Jones, Jeanne McManus, David Montgomery, Ellen Nakashima, Philip P. Pan, Linda Perlstein, Manuel Perez-Rivas, Alice Reid, Jacqueline L. Salmon, Katherine Shaver, Fern Shen, Lena H. Sun, Martin Weil and Scott Wilson contributed to this report.