Greetings from the snowy and cold Washington, D.C. area!... Brrrr....
I am not certain how many of you may have read or saw President Obama’s comments last week regarding the closing of this daughter’s school because of a small snow and ice storm that decided to grace the Washington, D.C. area. [video:2dto8aiv]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RypU4sairQ[/video:2dto8aiv]
When a few of you from MR inquired as to if it was really true that schools close due to snow and could not believe such things, I tried to explain how it is in this area and now that today, we have snow yet again, I thought about starting a small thread on the topic. I actually thought about putting this under Rtyom’s "Silly Questions Topic" as to most people not from the DC area (and even some from the DC area) it does seem quite silly to cancel school even when they are only forecasting snow!
It might help to understand the geography of this area. From where I live, I can drive 15-20 minutes and be in Washington, DC or in farm country (picking fresh fruit and seeing cows). Roads can be eight lane divided highways or two lane winding death traps (great for racing) all within one exit of each other.
The school system my daughters are in covers 497 square miles and serves over 139,000 students (of which over 96,000 ride a bus to school) and it is the 16th largest in U.S. All this factors in when there is the slightest chance of snow or ice. Add to this to the fact that there are a number of people who live in this area that are not from the United States (they are diplomats, scientist at the National Institutes of Health or immigrants), many of whom have never seen snow and have absolutely no idea how to drive in it and you have a recipe for disaster!
There is a running joke among the locals here, people who have grown up here and know what to expect every time it even looks or smells like snow “Abandon your cars now!” People actually do this. They will leave their cars on the side of the road and just walk because either 1) They are too afraid to drive or 2) the traffic is just not moving and it is faster to walk.
So, it is for all these reasons that school systems just simply decide to pack it up and shut down. Why bother with the insanity of driving up mountain roads behind a driver who has no clue how to get up that hill and is just going to slide right back down into your bus full of kids?
Your thoughts????